A Smashing Saga
by Toomai
Summary: The continuting story of the Super Smash Brothers, from the beginnings of the group to the trials of today. Chapter 14: Frontier formation can define a nation.
1. Invitations

**Chapter 1: Invitations**

_Greetings!_

_Congratulations on being part of the twelve citizens of the Nintendo Multiverse to be selected for the newly-established Super Smash Bros. Program! This program is designed as an attempt to create friendship and co-operation between various universes. While friendly combat is a primary component of the program, "Smashers" may freely travel to other partaking universes and do whatever they wish with other Smashers._

_To accept this offer, sign this letter in the indicated space. Then, simply place the letter in a new envelope and replace it in the mailbox you retrieved it from. Please accept as soon as possible, as there is a deadline. A specific time cannot be given, as time moves differently in various universes. Once your acceptance has been received, you will receive further instructions._

_To decline this offer, simply ignore it._

_We hope to see you soon!_

* * *

Luigi finished reading the letter to Mario.

"So-a what do you think, bro?" Luigi placed the first letter on the table, keeping the second. "There's-a one for each of-a us…should-a we go?"

"Hmm." Mario scratched his chin. "I-a like-a the sound of it…but what if Bowser decides to-a kidnap the princess while we're-a gone?"

"Oh." Luigi sat down. "I hadn't-a thought of that…what if he-a got one of these as well?"

"No no no," Mario said dismissively. "It-a said something about-a 'friendly combat'. I-a doubt they would-a invite Bowser for anything friendly."

Luigi thought of something. "Wait a second. We'd be-a free to come-a back anytime, right? And we could-a have others to help! There'd be-a no problem!"

Mario's eyes lit up. "Hey, you're-a right!" He quickly grabbed a pen and signed his letter. Luigi followed suit.

"Okey-dokey then, now we have to mail-a these." Mario pulled two envelopes out of a drawer, each with a Mushroom printed on the front. He put in his letter and sealed the envelope before pausing. "Now just a moment. Where do we-a mail these to?"

"It-a said we just put them back in-a the mailbox," said Luigi. "I-a suppose whoever sent them can-a take over from there."

The two Mario Bros. walked outside and placed their letters in the mailbox.

"Now-a we wait," said Mario.

Once the two plumbers had gone back inside, the two letters vanished in a flash of light.

* * *

Yoshi jumped out of the ocean and onto the beach.

"Another nice day on Yoshi's Island," the dino mused. "Bath time's over. And now it's food time."

While Yoshi was walking to his house for his imminent meal, he noticed a letter in his mailbox.

"I hate it when I miss the mailman," he mutted. "Ah well."

Yoshi grabbed the letter and walked inside. He used his tongue to snatch a knife from the table and had the letter out of the envelope within seconds.

"Lessee here. "Smash Bros.", hmm, that sounds a bit like Mario Bros. Friendly combat, eh? Hopefully that means giving Mario the business for punching me in the head a few years ago. Assuming he got one of these. Sign and return to sender without an address? Well, I guess when you work across universes, you can just grab the letter out of the box if you know where it is."

Once Yoshi had finished reading the letter, he had already eaten two apples, an orange, and a watermelon. He signed the letter and grabbed an envelope emblazoned with a Yoshi egg, grabbing a bunch of grapes on the way out.

"I wonder who else might be coming," Yoshi thought after putting the mail in the box. "Probably Mario, maybe his brother, DK possibly?"

The letter disappeared in a bright flash. Yoshi raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Ummmmkay. There's efficiency, I guess." He ate the rest of his grapes.

* * *

"Well…" started Donkey Kong. "They're wondering if I want to participate in…some sort of exchange program, it looks like."

"That sounds cool." Diddy grabbed another banana. "So you might be seeing that Mario again a few times, right?"

"I can only guess he got one of these." DK took a pen and tried signing the letter, but it was out of ink. He snapped it in half, threw it out the window, and tried another. "But really, who would invite a bunch of guys from a bunch of places and NOT invite Mario? That'd just be dumb."

"Unless they did it at random." Diddy threw a peel onto the pile in the corner.

"No, I wouldn't think so." The big ape slapped a "DK" sticker on the fresh envelope.

"Well, if he is there, you'll finally be able to have a real battle with him!"

"That's what I'm hoping for." DK gave Diddy the envelope. "Go put this back in the mailbox."

"Definitely." Diddy bounced off.

* * *

"Give…them…BACK!"

Link shoved the Master Sword into the Like Like one last time. It sputtered and shrank, leaving behind multiple items.

The Hero of Time wiped his brow. "Good grief. What is this, the sixth time today?" He scrambled to re-equip the Goron Tunic and Hylian Shield the creature dropped. "Those Golden Skulltulas better be worth all this trouble."

Link was about to move on to the next room in the Fire Temple when he noticed something else on the floor.

"Hey, what's this?" He picked it up. It was an envelope with an odd symbol on the front. The letter was addressed to "Link, the Hero of Time".

"I don't remember getting any mail recently…" The letter was opened and promptly read. "Hm, this sounds fascinating. A chance to develop my skills and meet new people."

Link looked around. While he was anxious to sign the letter and put it out of his mind, there was no suitable place to sign it - more than likely, the heat of the room's walls would set the paper on fire, and the floor was covered in dirt and grime.

"I guess I could use my arm." Link pulled a quill out of his hammerspace and signed the letter. "There. A bit wobbly, but it should be good." He pulled out an envelope that had previously held a letter from Zelda and stuffed the letter into it. The Triforce-emblazoned seal just managed to stick.

"Now how can I put this in the mailbox I got it from? I don't remember checking my mail for…well, probably a week or two now." He thought for a bit. "Well, what if I never got the letter until that Like Like spat it out? Maybe that's how they delivered it to me."

Link cautiously placed the envelope in the same spot on the floor where he found it. Within seconds, it vanished.

"Well that's good." The Hero of Time started towards the next room. "I had no idea if that would work."

* * *

"Data received."

Samus looked over to the screen on her right. "What?"

"Data received." The gunship's language processors were on the fritz.

"Fine, just keep driving." Samus rotated her pilot's chair to the right to get a better view of the monitor. The e-mail popped up.

"smasherrecruitmentservice at nintendo dot ntd? Hmm...hey, this looks kind of fun. Yeah, sign me up." She instinctively brought her right arm up to the screen.

"Error."

Samus rolled her eyes. "Oh shut up." She deactivated her Power Suit before taking a stylus and digitally signing her name. "Maybe I wanted to sign with my Plasma Beam."

"Unknown command."

"It's sarcasm, you dumbbell." The bounty hunter put her head in her hands. "Why does this thing always break twenty thousand parsecs away from the nearest spacedock?"

"Unknown command."

"And THAT was a rhetorical question." Samus applied a Screw Attack-shaped digital stamp and pressed the Reply button. "Do you want me to roll in there and Wave Beam your synthesizers to Zebes and back?"

"Maintenance required."

* * *

Kirby snatched the mail from his mailbox. "So…magazine…magazine…weekly death threat from Dedede…junk…junk…aaaand that's it."

The puffball turned back towards his house when there was a "shoof".

"Wuhwuzzat?" Kirby looked back to see that a letter had appeared in the recently-emptied mailbox. No one else was visible.

"…that was odd." He grabbed the letter and opened it on the spot.

"Now this sounds like a good way to get out more often and meet more good guys." Kirby produced a pen and signed the letter. "Not to mention I've heard rumours of some other guy that thinks he has a bigger appetite than mine - I'm going to Show. Him. Up!"

With a basketball-like move, Kirby rammed the letter into an envelope with Popstar's image on the front before jamming it back into the mailbox. It vanished with a "shoof".

"And there it goes." Kirby cracked open his fresh copy of _Munchies Monthly_ and started reading.

* * *

Fox walked into the break room with an air of exhaustion.

"What's up, Foxy?" Falco was sitting at the table with a mug in hand. "You look like you've been through a ringer."

"Don't call me Foxy." The team leader grabbed his own mug, labelled "My Other Car Is A Landmaster", and filled it with black coffee. "Peppy _insisted_ I do some on-foot battle training."

"No!" Falco's beak dropped open in mock surprise. "Did you break a nail?"

"Oh shut up." Fox sat down. "I used my legs, mostly. But they're kind of sore now."

"Well then. Shall I attempt to brighten your day?" Falco handed over a letter. "This appeared in your mailbox today."

Fox opened the letter and gave it a look-over.

"Well? What's it about?"

"Don't rush me." A bit of time passed. "Well, it seems like I've been invited to some sort of all-star camp."

"Really?" Falco took a large gulp of his beverage. "I guess you'll go just to leave us guys behind for one in your life, right?"

"Well, not completely…" Fox signed the letter. "But it will be a nice change of pace."

"Bah. I know you. You can't wait to get me out of your fur."

"Oh shut up." Fox got a Star Fox-labelled envelope from the cupboard and slid the letter into it. "Maybe you'll get one of these sometime."

"Whatever."

* * *

With a flash of light, a Pokéball appeared in the middle of the burrow.

"Pi?"

"Puff?"

The burrow's two occupants, a Pikachu and a Jigglypuff, both walked cautiously towards the object. Ever since the two friends had gotten lost on the Indigo Plateau, they were under siege from powerful Pokémon. Making too much noise had a chance of alerting unwanted company.

"Should we open it?" asked Pikachu. "It might be a trap."

"No, I don't think so." Jiggypuff walked around the Pokéball. "Pokémon can't use Pokéballs."

"Well…alright then." Pikachu poked the Pokéball's central button. The ball enlarged a bit. "Uh…I don't know how this works."

"I think we have to throw it."

"Oh." The Electric-type took the Pokéball with both paws and tossed it across the room.

The spherical device struck the floor and burst open, sending two pieces of paper into the room. The two Pokémon each grabbed one.

"Hey, this is some sort of letter!" Pikachu seemed excited.

"This one too." Jigglypuff sat down. "And it's written in Pokémon scratches!"

"Someone must be trying to rescue us!" Pikachu's eyes darted across the page. "Or…well, this could help as well. I mean, if they could get a Pokéball in here like that, they could save us."

"But…" Jigglypuff was sceptical. "How are we supposed to sign it?"

"Hmm…" The mouse looked around the burrow. He found a black tube. "Hey, what's this?"

"That's my microphone. I found it a while ago."

Pikachu gave the object a sniff. "I don't know about that…this smells like ink. It must be a writer!"

Jigglypuff walked over and gave the cap of the marker a tug. It popped off and bounced off the back wall.

"Now let's sign these, put them back in that Pokéball, and wait to get out of here."

* * *

The phone started ringing.

Captain Falcon groaned. "Why does this always happen?" He rolled out from under the Blue Falcon, wiped his hands off, and grabbed the phone.

"What is it?"

"Ahem." Falcon recognized the voice of his agent. "You have an important piece of mail."

"I told you, all fan mail-"

"This is not fan mail. It was sent with a priority signal."

"…Fine. Send it over." The F-Zero champion grumbled and hung up.

Within about half a minute, a letter was deployed through a slot in the wall. Falcon took it and started reading.

"Friendly combat, eh?" Falcon thought for a bit. "I've always enjoyed beating thugs up. This might actually be a challenge."

The speed demon signed the letter with a signature that took up half the page before putting it in an envelope and putting his falcon-shaped stamp on it. He shoved it back in the mail slot with a message reading: "Put this back in my mailbox or else."

* * *

"You has this mail! Boing!"

Ness looked over at the door. A Mr. Saturn was walking in with a letter perched on top of its nose.

"Uh, okay." Ness got out of his chair (a patched-up recliner) and took the letter. He was wondering how anyone could mail him something way over in Saturn Valley, but he didn't worry about it too much.

"It have came in sunflash. Zoom!"

"Um…so, it just appeared." Mr. Saturns were difficult to understand at times, but Ness was getting used to it.

"For yes! Ding!"

The psychic kid opened the letter and started reading it. "Hmm…this looks like a fun way to pass the time. Ever since all that crazy stuff happened, life's been kind of boring." Pause. "Well, except for that time where we tried each other's moves. That was nuts." He looked around for a writing instrument. "Uh, do you have a pen or something?"

"I has a writes. You wait just. Doink!" The Mr. Saturn waddled off, returning a minute later with a slightly gnawed-up pencil.

Ness hesitated for a second before taking the pencil and signing the letter. He then found an envelope in the corner and a stamp with the Earth on it in a drawer.

"Go put this back where it came from."

"Rightyokeydokey. Twing!"


	2. Introductions

**Chapter 2: Introductions**

Nothing.

The mottled black-and-purple background of subspace. The intermittent lightning, the quintonic rivers, the cloron-vadron equilibrium.

That was all there was.

Until now.

With an impressive flash, a single landmass appeared, floating in the void. An atmosphere floated into existence around it as gravity took effect.

A new universe was born.

The single landmass was a circular platform, about ten meters in diameter. The environment was Earth-like: nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, standard gravity, laws of physics as one would expect.

From a long distance away, a being watched the universe appear.

He was not happy that yet another universe had encroached on subspace. While he drifted away, he vowed to destroy all of them someday.

A rift appeared above the platform. Out of it popped a large egg.

Yoshi busted out of his egg. "Surprise, dudes!" He looked around. "Oh, no one's here yet. FIRST!!!"

The dino's voice faded away quickly with nothing to bounce off of.

"Bit of a bland place," Yoshi said. "I bet it'll get fixed up soon, though. I mean, when a rift appears with a sign saying 'You may now enter the Smashic Universe', you kind of expect something big."

A second rift appeared in the sky. An Arwing flew out of it, dropped off its pilot, and returned to its native universe before the rift closed.

Fox dusted himself off. "That was some ride…oh, hello!"

"Nice t'meetcha!" Yoshi gave Fox a hearty handshake. "Yoshi's the name."

"Yoshi, eh?" Fox chuckled. "Falco said the first guy I'd see would be a seven-foot robot. He loses another bet. I'm Fox McCloud."

Yoshi raised an eyebrow. "Well, I'll wait for someone else to make fun of that rather uncreative name."

A third rift appeared, allowing a one-meter sphere of metal to join the party.

"Uh…" Fox looked at the new arrival. "Hi there, um…"

"Samus Aran." The bounty hunter unrolled herself, much to the surprise of the other two.

"Um…hi." Yoshi looked at the Arm Cannon. "Tell me that thing shoots ice cream and water balloons."

"It shoots missiles and energy balls." Slightly apprehensive of the possible reception, Samus was using a male vocal projector.

"That's what I thought."

A rift opened, which DK promptly stepped out of.

"DK!" Yoshi called. "What're you doin' 'ere, ya big muscle man?"

The ape shrugged. "Same reason you are, I guess. New friends and new battles."

One rift opened, followed by a second of a different type. Ness flew out of the second and skidded to a stop just short of the edge.

"Careful there!" said Fox.

"Yikes." Ness walked towards the center of the platform. "I thought that would be easier."

"I'm just surprised you didn't run into anyone," said DK.

A pair of rifts opened in the ground, which both revealed Warp Pipes. A pair of plumbers jumped out of the pipes.

"Wassup?!" Yoshi leaped over and gave Mario a massive belly bump. The plumber fell down.

"Why'd-a you do that?" Mario got back up.

"Eh, no reason." Yoshi clapped Luigi on the back. DK quickly did the same, which collapsed him.

"It's a Blaster." Fox pulled it out and showed it to Samus. "Not much power, but fires fast and accurate."

"But can it charge up its shots?"

Kirby stepped out of another rift. "Hi guys!" He started looking at each Smasher in turn. "Strawberry…coconut…orange…toffee…raspberry…"

"Bubble gum." Yoshi pointed back at Kirby.

"Oh, so you eat stuff too?"

"That's an understatement."

Link appeared from a rift. "Uh-oh…no one else here has a sword. Am I in the right place?"

"If you got an invitation to be a Smasher, then yes," replied Ness.

"Hmm. How am I supposed to duel those without swords?"

"I'm sure you'll learn," said DK. "I mean, we can defend ourselves just fine."

"I didn't expect this at all…"

A rift appeared, launching Pikachu and Jigglypuff onto the platform. Loud stomping and growling noises were heard from the rift's other side before it closed.

"Pika…piiikaaa…" Pikachu laid down to rest. Jigglypuff sat down beside him.

"Hi!" Kirby walked up to the two Pokémon. "How're you?"

"We're fine."

"Uh…" Kirby gave a sideways look. "I don't think 'Jig jiggly' is English."

"Uh-oh…" Jigglypuff turned to Pikachu. "They can't understand us."

"Oh great."

"Well, I hope you two can learn a few more syllables soon." Kirby seemed worried that there were some non-English Smashers.

A tenth rift opened. Out stepped Captain Falcon.

"Hey there!" he called in the loud voice he was apt to use. "Nice to meet ya!"

Samus looked around. "That looks like all twelve of us."

DK got everyone's attention by smashing his fists together. "So we're the Smashers."

"Yup," said Fox. "Although I'm surprised that whoever organized this thing isn't here to greet us."

"Well, we'll-a have to make do." Mario cleared his throat. "I-a guess we should introduce our-a-selves. I'll-a go first."

"Of course he goes first," Yoshi remarked.

Mario ignored Yoshi's comment. "My name's-a Mario. I'm-a from the Mushroom Kingdom."

"The Mushroom Kingdom?" asked Link. "That sounds…odd."

"Compared to some other universes, I-a guess it would be."

"What do you do for a living?" asked Ness.

"He looks like some sort of worker," said Falcon.

"Technically, I'm a plumber. But it-a seems I do a lot more princess-rescuing than plumbing these-a days. Bowser just never gives-a up."

"Bowser? That sounds like a cheap movie monster," said Fox.

"He's-a worse than that…but that's-a for later."

"Ahem." Luigi decided to have his turn. "I'm-a Luigi, Mario's brother."

"Thought I saw a resemblance," said Samus.

"Yeah." Pikachu nodded his head.

"He may be my older bro, but he'll-a never jump as high as-a I can!"

"Or-a be as clumsy as you."

"Sibling rivalry incoming," said Yoshi.

"What do you know?" asked Kirby.

"A lot. I did save their butts more times than they can remember. The name's Yoshi. I'm from their universe, just a different part of it."

"So what do you do with your life? You help those plumbers save princesses?" said Falcon.

"Eh, sometimes. Otherwise, I eat."

"You'll have a tough time out-eating the great Kirby!" The puffball quickly paused to munch a few tomatoes. "I'm from Dreamland, I've saved the place from weird dark stuff, and have never been outeaten, not even by that oaf Dedede!"

"You want summa this? You set the time and place. It's on."

"Calm down, you gluttons." Fox stopped the trash-talk. "My name is Fox McCloud."

There were a few chuckles from the group. Fox ignored them. "I lead Team Star Fox, a group of good guys that protect the Lylat System and nearby stars."

"You lead a team of-a foxes?" asked Luigi.

"Er, no. We have a bird, a frog, and a hare."

Link was next. "I'm Link. I'm from Hyrule, a land ruled by…well, right now it's the tyrant Ganondorf, but it's supposed to be Princess Zelda of the Royal Family."

"Let me guess," said DK. "This Gannonderf captured the princess and is ruling instead of her."

"Actually, I have no idea where she is. Hopefully Ganondorf doesn't know either. He attacked seven years ago…well, back when I took the Master Sword." He showed it off. "It locked me in time for seven years because I was too young to wield it."

"Rad. Well, I'm Captain Falcon."

"What, no real name?" jeered Yoshi.

The captain grumbled. "If you must know, it's Douglas. But I don't respond to it."

"And what do you do for a living?" asked Kirby.

"I race. And very well, in fact I won a big race just a week or two ago. F-Zero is a very profitable profession."

"My name is Ness." People were relieved that Falcon was cut off. "I come from a town called Eagleland. I have psychic powers."

"Really?" Link closed his eyes. "I'm thinking of a number."

"Twelve and a half."

"He's good."

"What else can-a you do?" asked Mario.

Ness focused for a second and threw a small bolt of fire out of his hands. It flew forwards a short distance and fizzed out.

"I'm not too good at that one yet. It's called PK Fire."

"It's still cool," said Pikachu.

"It's really too bad we can't understand you," said Fox. "You can understand us, right?"

Both Pokémon nodded.

"They're Pokémon, I think," said Ness. "I never watched the TV show, but they always speak in their names, so that's a Pikachu, and that's a Jigglypuff. I think Pikachu is electric something, but that's all I know."

Pikachu's cheeks cracked with energy.

"We'll work something out," said Kirby.

Samus was the last to be introduced. "I'm Samus Aran. I work as a bounty hunter for the Galactic Federation."

"So are you a robot, or a guy in a robot suit?" asked Yoshi. "And if you're a guy in a suit, how do those shoulders feel?"

Samus sighed. She was hoping to keep it a secret for a bit longer, but a direct question couldn't be refused. She pressed a button and her helmet faded away.

The reactions were diverse. Yoshi raised an eyebrow and said nothing, while the Mario Bros. gave each other a look of "Okay then" and Falcon fell flat on his back.

"Now that that's all sorted out…" Link broke the silence. "What do we do now?"

"We could tour each other's universes," suggested Ness as Samus put her helmet back on.

Falcon leaped up. "Great idea! Superb! Why didn't I think of that?"

Luigi looked around. "But how-a do we get out of here?"

The question was significant. All the entry rifts had closed and there was no sign of any other platforms.

"Well…" DK scratched his head. "We could, uh…um…"

"Hey! Look!" pointed Jigglypuff.

Ten smaller platforms had appeared around the main one, just far enough away that a normal jump would probably not reach. Each platform had a coloured pad with a symbol on it, but no one could tell what symbols the pads had without getting up close.

"Those pads have got to be the way out of here," said Yoshi. "Let's pick a random one and start there."

"Okay…how about that one?" Kirby pointed to the pad that Samus' compass suggested was due north.

"Sounds good." Yoshi leapt across the chasm and hovered to the pad. Kirby and Jigglypuff followed by floating, while Ness psychically jumped in the air and Samus used her Space Jump.

"It's some sort of triangle with a hole in the middle," said Kirby. "That's the symbol."

"That's the Triforce," Link said. "It must lead to my universe."

"But how do we get over there?" asked DK. "We can't jump that far."

"Well…" Fox thought for a bit. "Peppy told me once that not all universes have the same laws. Maybe we can jump over there."

"But how?" asked Falcon. "I mean, gravity's the same as always. We'd have to jump in the air or something."

"Hmm…" Mario bravely leapt out towards the platform. He got halfway across and somehow jumped in mid-air to cover the rest of the distance.

"It's not-a that hard," he called across the gap. "Just…ah…try to push yourself upwards…er…it's-a hard to explain."

"I'll-a try." Luigi jumped away. He also managed to double jump and land safely.

"That looks pretty easy," said Fox. He made the jump as well, followed by DK, Pikachu, and Falcon.

"Pah! That was easy!" Falcon gloated. "I think I can get used to these jump-in-the-air physics."

Only Link remained on the main platform. "I'm not too sure about this…I'm not that good at jumping…"

"Oh come on, you big baby," jeered Falcon. "It was less than nothing."

"Well, here goes." Link got a running start and jumped. He didn't get nearly as far as the others. He tried double jumping but still didn't get all the way across.

Multiple Smashers called out in alarm. But Link suddenly span in a circle with his sword extended, a move that just gave him enough movement to grab onto the platform's edge.

"Are you okay?" asked Kirby as Link climbed up onto the platform.

"Yeah…I don't know why I did that. I guess I'm just so used to pulling out a Spin Attack when I'm in danger, it just kind of…happened." Link took a few breaths. "I mean, I've never done a Spin Attack in the air before. It was weird."

"Well, at least you made it across." DK looked over the edge at the subspace below. "I'm guessing that there's no way to get up from down there."

"In any case…I'll go first," Link said. "That way, they won't see some mystery guy invading the premises, not to mention we don't know exactly where this thing leads."

"Good idea," said Pikachu.

One by one, the Smashers each stood on the pad and vanished in colourful flashes of light.


	3. Catch

**Chapter 3: Catch**

One by one, the Smashers appeared in a brick-built building.

"Nice place," said Kirby. "But it's a bit boring."

The room was a simple hall with a podium and door at one end with the exit at the other. The Smashers had appeared on a large stone pad with a mark composed of three triangles and three circles.

"This is the Temple of Time," explained Link. "Seven years ago, I took those three Spiritual Stones here to claim the Master Sword so I could defeat Ganondorf."

"And you haven't yet." Yoshi was investigating the temple's scents.

"Well…the sword locked me up for seven years, giving Ganondorf time to take the place over. But I'm almost ready to face him now. I just have to finish off a nasty beast in the Shadow Temple."

"That sounds-a scary," said Luigi.

"It's definitely one of the spookier temples. Stalfos, Dead Hands, Wallmasters. I would bet that at least someone here would be freaked out."

"Oh yeah? Try me!" Falcon scoffed.

Link raised an eyebrow. "Okay then. There're some bad guys just outside. Go pummel some of them."

"No problem!" The F-Zero racer flexed his muscles. "I'm a bounty hunter in my spare time. I've got Pyrogloves and Pyroboots. Nothing out there can withstand my moves!" He rushed outside.

"Is he daft or what?" Samus had gone back to her standard vocal projector.

A few seconds later there were a multitude of screams.

"Um…maybe we should go help him," said Fox. "Yeah, he's probably learning something right now, but we don't want to lose anyone."

"Eh, good point. Okay now, listen up." Link took the Ocarina of Time and blew through it a few times. "There are ReDeads out there."

"I'll take a wild guess that they're not dead anymore," said Yoshi.

"You could say that. They move pretty slowly, but their scream will paralyze you. Then they grab your body and start draining your energy."

"This seems familiar." Samus' arm cannon reconfigured itself into a taller shape with white energy seeping through the cracks.

"Luckily, I know a song that will paralyze them right back." Link demonstrated the Sun's Song. "Once they're frozen in place, we can attack safely."

"Let's do it!" yelled Pikachu.

"Pikaa!" mimicked Kirby.

The Smashers dashed out of the Temple of Time. There were about six ReDeads wandering the decrepit town square. Falcon was seen hiding behind a building.

"Here it comes!" Link played the tune.

The ReDeads all turned white and froze.

"Attack!" Yoshi hurled an egg at the closest zombie. It beaned and toppled it.

Mario leapt towards a ReDead, decking it with a multitude of punches. Samus shot an Ice Beam at the third, freezing it solid just before DK came in with a concussive punch that broke the enemy into fragments. Pikachu Tackled another before unleashing a Thunder Shock while Fox destroyed the fifth with a few Blaster shots and a bunch of kicks. The last ReDead was taken out with a pillar of Ness' PK Fire.

"Wow!" Link put away the arrow he was about to shoot. "You guys went though those ReDeads really fast! I'm impressed."

"Well, there are a lot of us," said Fox.

Falcon walked over. "Peh. If that one guy hadn't frozen up my muscles, this would have been over in no time."

"Whatever." Link walked around collecting the Magic Decanters the ReDeads dropped.

"What's in there?" asked Yoshi. "Zombie juice? Distilled double-defunct drink?"

"Green potion." Link took a swig of the stuff. "Diluted, but it still does a good job of refilling magic power. ReDeads are magically animated, so they drop tons of the stuff."

Kirby snatched one of the vials and drank it. "Hmm, tastes like 7-Up. BUUUURP!"

Meanwhile, Mario was giving Yoshi a sideways face. "Did you-a say 'distilled double-defunct drink'? I-a thought your vocabulary was limited."

"In the last few weeks, I've been hitting the thesaurus pretty hard. It's really activated my dormant wit." The dino tried some of the magic juice. "Zesty! Piquant yet poignant."

"So, Link," said DK. "I don't suppose you'll want our help with the rest of your enemies? 'Cause I'm ready for it."

Link thought for a moment. "You guys would sure be a big help in combat. But I don't think we'll get anywhere very fast. The Shadow Temple has tons of illusions that can only be seen through with the Lens of Truth, of which there is only one."

"Illusions? Like what?" asked Fox.

"Invisible enemies, fake floors, that kind of stuff."

"Bummer," said Samus. "We could really tear through this place."

"However, I do have an idea of something other than fighting we could do together." Link pulled out the Ocarina again. "I think we'll all have to grab onto each other for this."

Pikachu latched himself onto Link's leg. Yoshi grabbed Pikachu's tail and the rest of the Smashers joined the "line of touch".

"Here goes." Link played the Serenade of Water. All the Smashers dissolved into blue sparks and went flying across Hyrule.

* * *

Everyone reappeared on an island in a lake.

"This is Lake Hylia," said Link. "There's a fishing pond over on the other side there." He pointed to a building to the east.

"So we'll have to swim," said DK.

"Yeah…I don't know why there's no bridge or anything."

"Let's go then!" Yoshi dove into the lake and started paddling. Most of the other Smashers followed suit, but Samus and Falcon remained on shore.

"What's wrong with you two?" asked Fox.

"I shouldn't need to swim!" Falcon said loudly. "I'll just run across the lake!"

Falcon started running but had no chance of running on the water. He sank quickly, obviously not knowing how to swim.

"You moron." Samus used her Grapple Beam to pull Falcon out of the water before using a Super Missile to launch him across the lake. She then stepped into the lake and sank like a rock.

The rest of the Smashers were climbing out of the lake beside the Fishing Pond.

"That was fun!" Kirby sprayed water like a fountain back into the lake.

"Are-a you okay?" Mario asked Falcon, who was laid out after he collided with the wall.

"I'm fine, of course!" He tried to sit up but fell back down.

Link had a facepalm. "Here, drink this." He gave the downed racer some Red Potion.

Samus walked out of the lake, her Power Suit having turned a purplish-blue.

"Gravity Suit," she explained just as Ness was about to ask. "Eliminates water resistance."

"I guess you need that kind of thing if you can't float," said Jigglypuff.

"Okay then," started Link. "It costs 20 Rupees to rent a fishing rod. I'll pay up front if you don't have any money with you, but I expect to get repaid sometime soon."

"Uh, problem." Yoshi produced a few Coins from his hammerspace. "I bet pretty much none of us share the same currency."

"Hmm." Link furrowed his brow. "You're right. Since our universes have never been connected before, there's no set exchange rate."

"Why not set it a-now?" asked Mario.

"I don't see why not," said Fox.

The Smashers all took out some money and started debating exchange rates. It was quickly decided that for most currencies, the rate would simply be even, although the fact that Pikachu had a crumpled 100-Pokédollar bill prompted a 10:1 rate for it.

"Alright then." Link pocketed the money that the others paid for fishing and started writing things down. "20 Coins from Mario, 15 from Luigi, 20 from Yoshi, 12 from DK, 20 credits from Samus, 100 Pokédollars from Pikachu, and 10 dollars from Ness." He rustled through his hammerspace to pull out his wallet. "Hopefully currency converters will be available sometime soon."

The dozen Smashers entered the Fishing Pond.

"Woah!" The pond's owner did a double-take. "This is an odd group you got here. What bottomless pit did you yank 'em out of?"

Link waved his hand dismissively. "Just give us some rods. Here's the money." He dumped 240 Rupees on the counter.

"Okay then." The man fished some rods out from behind the counter. "So, you new guys, here're the rules. Don't disturb the fish. Don't use unapproved lures. Don't take rods off the premises."

"Yes sir, etcetera." Yoshi did an army salute and dashed over to the pond's far bank. He made a cast which instantly got stuck on a weed.

The rest of the Smashers took up spots on the pond's shores.

"So basically, once you feel a tug, start reeling," explained Link. "Try to pull in the same direction the fish is moving."

Pikachu gripped the rod with his tail and made a big cast. He got a bite almost immediately, but he fumbled with the reel.

"Darn!" Once he had finally fixed his tiny hands on the reel, the fish had gotten away.

"That's okay," said Jigglypuff. "I bet no one gets it the first time."

Falcon made a big one-handed cast and leaned right over the pond with an expression that suggested he had to catch something or else.

"What a maroon," Yoshi remarked to Kirby. "He probably won't even accept the biggest fish in the pond."

"He probably thinks…" Kirby felt a tug. "Hey!" He started reeling and caught the fish.

"Nice work, Kirbs!"

Link looked over. "Hey, that's a Greengill. Nice start."

"I suggest you don't eat it," said Yoshi. "I don't think the owner would be happy."

"Awww…"

The Smashers fished for about an hour. Aside from Kirby's catch, DK caught a Hylian Bass, Fox caught a Hylian Pike, and Link caught a very large Hylian Bass.

"Woah!" said the pond owner. "That's gotta be at least 22 pounds! Congratulations!"

"Thanks." Link placed the fish in the display tank.

"Here, have this!" The owner gave Link a Golden Scale.

"Ooh, wow!" Link stored the item.

"I think we're done here," said Samus.

"Yeah, let's-a go do something else," said Luigi.

The Smashers returned their rods and left the building.

"That was fun," said Fox.

"Hmph." Falcon was in a bad mood after not catching anything, save for a boot.

"Oh, come on, Mr. Grumpy," Link said. "No one's guaranteed to succeed at something on their first try." He pulled out the Ocarina. "I think we'll have to return to the Temple of Time in order to leave this universe."

"And then where should we go next?" asked Ness.

"Well, the pads-a were arranged in a circle," said Mario. "We'll just take what-a-ever's to the right."

"Okay then. Let's go." The Smashers left.


	4. Targets

**Chapter 4: Targets**

"Welcome to Yoshi's Island!" Yoshi announced.

The second pad had warped the Smashers right next to the dino's house. The building was situated in a clearing at the back of a beach with a dock. Various other islands were visible in the distance.

Fox rubbed his eyes. "Yeesh, it's so bright here."

"You mean the colours, right?" Yoshi snatched an apple off a tree. "I would bet that some of you aren't used to hues this vibrant."

Kirby quickly skipped over to a bush and started sampling some of its fruit.

"This is my hizhouze," said Yoshi. "It's top-of-the-line. Solar panels on the roof, wind turbines around the back there, hydro generators that catch the tides. I only have a Power Star grid connection just in case. Big TV, computer with Skylight '98, superb modem, N64 with four controllers each with a Rumble Pack."

"I-a never knew you were such a tech guy," said Mario.

"You don't apologize for having the best."

"Does anyone else live on this island?" asked Ness.

"Nah. All the other Yoshis are on those islands over there." Yoshi pointed at the islands in the distance. "Yosh'ter Isle, Lavalava Island, that kind of stuff."

"What else is on this island?" asked Link.

"I'll show ya." Yoshi started towards a path between the trees. The Smashers followed.

"Don't you get lonely living here?" asked DK.

"Eh, kind of." Yoshi kicked a tripping hazard out of the way. "But it's easy to just hop over to another island and party or something."

The Smashers emerged from the forest at the opposite edge of the island. There was no beach on this side, just a rocky outcrop. A single tree was in the center of the clearing. The tree was bearing various kinds of fruit. A very large landmass was visible on the horizon.

"I call this the Treespot," said Yoshi. "It's one of those places where you can just six and relax."

Kirby immediately made a beeline for the tree's fruit, but Yoshi stopped him.

"Ah-ah-ah! You can't go there."

"Why not?"

"The tree regenerates its fruit almost instantly. Considering what I've previously seen, you'd never leave."

"Awww…"

"What's that mainland over there?" asked Samus.

"That's the Mushroom Kingdom," said Yoshi. "Where those two plumbers come from."

"Wait wait wait," Fox said. "You guys come from the same universe? How come you showed up separately, then?"

"I dunno. Some things are just weird."

Pikachu noticed something in the distance. "Hey, what's that?" He started pointing furiously.

"Say what?" Yoshi looked at Pikachu's pointing and followed it to something on the horizon that looked like a boat. "Just a sec." The dino climbed the fruit-bearing tree and took out a telescope one he reached the top. After a few seconds, he came back down.

"Don't look now, plumber boys," he said, "but Peach is coming!"

The two Mario Bros. both had their jaws drop, while DK's expression became confused and worried.

"Aren't peaches fruit?" asked a bewildered Fox.

"Not in this case," said Yoshi. "Peach is the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. The kind of princess that gets into a bit of trouble."

"Who's-a she coming with?" asked Mario.

"No one. She's driving the boat."

Mario immediately made a noise of shock.

The boat disappeared from view, presumably coming around to the beach side of the island, based on the noise.

"To the docks!" proclaimed Yoshi. He dashed into the forest, followed by the others.

By the time the Smashers got back to Yoshi's house, the boat was already approaching the dock. Yoshi grabbed a rope and latched it onto the boat.

Peach jumped out of the boat, landing gracefully on the dock. "Well, this is a nice surprise."

"Nice? You almost gave Mr. Jumpman here a heart attack," said Yoshi.

Peach giggled. "They said they were leaving on a cross-universe tour. They never said you were a stop on that tour."

"Eh, skillz." Yoshi presented the others. "We're the Smashers. We've been going around visiting each other's universes."

"So you decided to visit Yoshi because Mario was away?" asked Link.

"Yes." Peach kicked her shoes into the boat and put on sandals. "Sometimes I get bored of being royalty, so I come here to unwind. It's the closest place outside of the kingdom."

"You are one daring princess," said Fox.

"Enough chitchat," said Yoshi. "I've got an idea of something we could do." He ran into his house and started rummaging around.

"So…princess…" Falcon started.

"Don't even think about it, lunkhead." Peach brought out a lawn chair and sat down.

Yoshi came back out the door holding a ton of foam targets. "Let's do some target practice."

"Like how?" asked Ness.

"I'll set the targets up around here and we try to smash them as fast as possible."

"That seems like fun," said Link. "So we all rush in and break them to see who can get the most?"

"Well…actually, I was thinking that we each break ten and see who can do it faster, but that sounds a lot funner."

The Smashers all helped in setting up the targets around the island. There was a total of fifty. Once the targets were placed, they all stood on the edge of the beach.

"Any means necessary?" asked Samus.

"Provided you don't kill anyone," said DK.

Yoshi looked towards Peach, who was still relaxing nearby. "Hey Peach! Do you mind if you give us some sort of starting signal?"

"Alright then." Peach sat up. "Three…two…one…GO!"

Chaos ensued. Link, Samus, and Fox were immediately shooting at the currently visible targets. Yoshi, Pikachu, and Falcon vanished into the forest, hoping to use speed to catch the targets on the other side of the island quickly. Kirby was inhaling various targets, dragging them out of the way of others, before trying to destroy them himself with his stubby limbs. The others were using their own tricks to break the targets.

After a single minute, all the targets were destroyed.

"That was exhilarating!" said Yoshi.

"You could say that," replied Link, his right arm having sustained a direct Skull Bash.

"Oh shut up, you big elf!" said Pikachu. "Ness moved the target I was about to hit!"

"Whatever you said, I'm sure it was scathing." Yoshi brought out a clipboard. "Now, how did everyone do?"

The scores came in. Samus and Fox had won with twelve targets each, with no other Smasher scoring more than eight.

"That probably wasn't the fairest contest," said Samus.

"Agreed," said Yoshi. "If we do that again, we'll need different rules."

"Do you have anything else to do around here?" asked Fox. "I mean, this island's about it, right?"

"I guess you're right. Anything else to do would be on the main continent, which should be saved for later, considering we'll be back here sometime."

"So we're done here already?" asked Kirby. "Aww." He started eating some more fruit.

"Maybe we could-a accompany Peach back to her castle," said Mario.

"No way," Peach said. "I'm perfectly fine without you, you know."

"Alrighty then." The Smashers gathered near the entry point. Just like in the Temple of Time, a pad had appeared bearing a crossed circle symbol.

"What's that symbol mean, anyway?" asked Link.

"It's probably just some abstract shape that means "Smashic Universe"," said Yoshi. "I mean, the symbols so far seem to correlate with their universes pretty well."

The Smashers left.

* * *

After about half an hour, Peach decided it was time to leave. But when she walked up to the dock, her boat wasn't there.

"Now what's going on?" she wondered. "Yoshi tied it up nice and good."

The piece of rope still attached to the dock was singed.

"Did…" Peach thought for a moment. "Maybe the rope got burnt during that target practice they had. Mario was throwing fireballs everywhere."

The dock shook with the impact of a massive body.

"MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"


	5. Dogfight

**Chapter 5: Dogfight**

"Well, this is a little awkward."

The Smashers had appeared directly on the bridge of the Great Fox, which was currently in space. R.O.B.64 was the only non-Smasher on the bridge.

The robot paused his piloting to look at the new arrivals. "Explain".

"Oh, um…" Fox thought quickly. "We were just dropping in for a visit; we had no idea where we'd end up."

"Alright." R.O.B.64 went back to what he was doing.

"Bit curt, isn't he?" remarked Yoshi.

"Personality wasn't on top of the list when he was built," said Fox. "Besides, he has to pay attention to what he's doing."

"You built him?" asked DK.

"No, it wasn't me." Fox opened the door in the back. "C'mon, I'll show you around."

As could be expected, the first room to be displayed was the break room.

"This is the break room," Fox said. "This is where we eat and generally hang out."

Peppy looked up from the chess game he and Falco were having. "Oh! These must be those all-stars you mentioned not long ago."

"Yup." Fox eyed the chessboard. "Hey Falco, I think you should give up now."

"Pah, I've got this oldie beat." The bird made his move. "His attack is full of holes."

Peppy chuckled and moved a rook. "Checkmate in two moves."

"Toldja."

Falco looked over the board. "Yeah no." He gave the offending rook a knock with his own rook.

"That'll teach him!" Falcon, most likely, did not know much about chess.

The hare made his move, sliding his queen right beside Falco's king. He then crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Resigning yet?"

"With a dumb move like that?" The bird bumped the queen with his rook, lazily tossing the target away. Pikachu leapt into the air and caught it.

"Here you go, Mr. Peppy." The Pokémon returned the piece to its owner.

Peppy put the piece on the table before taking a knight and placing it beside a pawn.

"Checkmate."

"Oh snapz!" cried Yoshi.

"You've gotta be kiddin' me." Falco stared at the board.

"Oh he got you, Falco," said Fox. "Just admit it."

"Whatev." Falco stood up unceremoniously. "I'll be in the simulator."

Before Falco could leave, however, Slippy came in.

"Hey Falco, I need your help with some mods I'm doing to the Arwings."

"I suppose you need my tech expertise to offset your clumsiness, eh?"

"Er, no, I need a second pair of hands."

Falco sighed. "Okay, I guess. As long as you're not modding my craft!" The two left. A few seconds later some muffled shouts could be heard from behind the door.

"Those guys…" Fox started. "Falco's our ace. Slippy's our tech guy. Peppy's our supervisor, in a way."

"If that conversation was an indicator," said Samus, "I bet you have to break up a lot of arguments."

"Falco's a piece o' work, that's for sure." Fox thought for a moment. "But he did give me an idea…you guys could have a go in the flight simulator."

"Ooh!" Kirby jumped up and down. "That sounds really fun!"

Fox hesitated for a bit. "I'm not sure how you non-humanoids will do, but there's no sense in not trying. C'mon, let's go."

* * *

The simulator room, located near the back of the Great Fox, contained twelve sets of virtual reality equipment.

"It's simple, really," explained Fox. "Just sit in the chair and put the helmet on. You'll enter a virtual world. Once there, I'll show you how to use an Arwing."

"So…we put on the helmet, and we'll be somewhere else, but we'll also be here?" Link was confused, and rightly so, as he had never seen technology this advanced.

"It…tricks your brain," said Fox as the other Smashers were getting ready. "Normally, your brain takes input from your eyes and all that. Instead, it'll be taking the input we give it, creating an illusion that you're doing something other than just sitting there."

Link scratched his head. "I think I got it…"

"You'll be fine. We haven't had any incidents for a very long time."

The Smashers each got into a chair and pressed the helmet-lowering button.

"Ow!" Yoshi yelped. "Does it not pay attention to cranial geography or what?"

"It squished your eyes, didn't it?" Fox sighed. "There's nothing I can do about that, I'm afraid. Just sit lower in the chair."

The Smashers all got settled in. "Okay then," Fox said. "Begin program L3-4F5."

The virtual reality equipment activated. To the Smashers, they were now all standing in the middle of a large hangar full of Arwings.

"Woah!" DK said. "That's weird."

"It is at first." Fox moved towards the nearest Arwing. "I'll tell you guys how to pilot these things once you get inside."

Everyone picked an Awring and climbed inside. DK was somewhat cramped, but other than that everyone seemed fine.

"Computer, personalize Arwing colour scheme."

The Arwing Yoshi claimed developed green wings with red thrusters and an egg emblem on the side.

Fox's image came up on the communicator. "Hey, how'd you know you could do that?"

"Lucky guess. And lots of Star Trek."

Various Arwings began changing colour to match their pilots. Samus' became orange and red, while Falcon's earned a #07 and Kirby's turned a shade of pink.

"Okay, so here's how it works," Fox explained. "You'll see a flightstick on your right-hand side. That's your main steering stick. Use it to turn, rise, and dive. On the left is a lever you'll use to control your speed. You can boost and brake, but neither can be used for too long."

Everyone murmured in assent. Fox went on. "There's a button on top of the flightstick you can use to fire lasers. There's also a trigger which you can hold in order to tilt the craft sideways. Tapping the trigger twice has you do a barrel roll or loop-de-loop, depending on which direction the stick is tilted. Finally, that large button on the left fires Smart Bombs. You only have three."

"…I'm still confused," said Link.

"I'm sure you'll catch on." Fox cracked his knuckles. "Computer, launch Arwings."

The Arwings' engines each lit up. Quickly, each one lifted off into the virtual sky.

"Just toy around a bit, get your bearings," said Fox. He started doing loop-de-loops.

The Arwings flew around rather haphazardly. Some Smashers were already good pilots and pulled off some skilful maneuvers. Some were not.

"Ooooog." Link held his head in his hands. "I feel dizzy."

"Boo!" Pikachu swooped in and nearly clipped the swordsman's nose. "This is fun!"

"Take-a this!" Mario fired some lasers right in front of Luigi, who panicked and dropped a few dozen meters. The red plumber laughed.

"That-a wasn't funny!" Luigi fired back but completely missed. The two brothers quickly got into a fight, but neither could hit the other.

"Having fun over there, eh?" Fox asked.

"Of course they're having fun," said Yoshi. "Those two love blowing each other up. I bet DK will get a few shots in there just for kicks."

"Maybe." DK fired a shot at Yoshi.

"Well then…why don't we have a little contest?" Fox pressed a few buttons. "Free-for-all dogfight. You won't crash when you're shot down, but you'll be unable to shoot and shots won't hurt you."

"Yeaaaah!" yelled Falcon.

"Why not?" said Samus.

"Ummm…" mumbled Link.

"Let's go!" called Ness.

"Okay then." Fox counted down. "3…2…1…GO!"

Everyone opened fire. Most of the shots weren't hitting anything, but some Smashers were taking minor damage.

"Woopwoopwoopwoopwoop!" Kirby nailed Link right between the thrusters.

"I'm so confused!" Link's shields were dropping quickly. In panic he launched a Smart Bomb.

The bomb flew towards Jigglypuff and exploded, taking out a significant chuck of her shields.

"Aie!" The balloon Pokémon made a U-turn only to meet more laser fire.

"YAR!" Falcon shot all his Smart Bombs at once. Two of them missed completely, while the third hit the hapless Link.

"I think you're done, Link," said Fox, who was hitting Falcon.

"No argument here." Link flew below the battle, his shields gone.

"Whuh-oh." Yoshi dodged away from a volley of shots from Ness, who quickly spun to hit DK with a few blasts.

"BOMB!" Kirby launched a Smart Bomb, which hit both Jigglypuff and Falcon, eliminating them both.

"You cheat!" cried Falcon.

Mario and Luigi were so far only concentrating on each other. Samus decided to take advantage by firing a volley of shots at both of them.

"Oh no!" Mario's shields were down to half. "C'mon bro, we can't win if we keep attacking each other all-a day! We can save each other for-a later!"

"I have you now!" said Pikachu, chasing Yoshi with cannons blazing.

"I'll try spinning, that's a good trick." Yoshi tapped the trigger and barrel rolled. Pikachu's shots bounced away and glanced off Fox's craft.

"Hey, what the…" The Electric-type was promptly met by one of Samus' Smart Bombs, which took his shield down to under ten percent.

"Gang up on Fox!" Kirby called. "He has the bestest experience!"

"Uh-oh." Fox hit the boost as the remaining Smashers turned his way and fired.

"Can't let you do that, Fox!" Samus fired her second Smart Bomb. It dealt a decent amount of damage.

"Take this then!" Fox let loose his own Smart Bomb at the peak of a loop-de-loop, hitting most of the chasing Smashers with it.

"I wonder what this does." Yoshi held down the firing button. A targeting reticule appeared on Fox's ship. "Ooh, this looks good. FIRE!" The charged shot hit. "Hey guys, you can charge shots by holding the button down!"

Fox's shields started dropping quickly. He made another loop-de-loop and fired another Smart Bomb, which took out most of the Smashers following him.

"You missed!" Kirby flew right of the explosion, Samus following.

Fox dropped his last Smart Bomb, but the two skilled fliers avoided it easily.

"Hmm, you guys are good." He turned around and fired at the two head-on. Samus dodged most of the shots, while Kirby rolled and deflected them.

"Crap, my stabilizers have depolarized," Samus muttered.

"What's that mean?" asked Kirby as he made some shots at Fox.

"I'm just reading what it says here." The bounty hunter's ship started rocking around.

Fox smirked. "Shouldn't've stressed your engines dodging all that, eh?" He took out the remaining bit of Samus' shields.

"Go Kirby!" yelled Yoshi. "Show that vulpine who is the boss!"

"Get that puffball!" cried Falcon. "He took me out, show him up!"

The two remaining combatants circled around, each shooting at the other but missing. After a bit they both backed off.

"I don't intend to lose," said Fox.

"I intend to…to…uh, to intenditionally put your intentionings in the dumpingster!" Kirby blabbered.

There was silence for a bit. Then most of the Smashers started laughing.

"You sure have a way with words," said DK.

Fox shrugged. "No matter." He hit the boost and streaked towards Kirby. The puffball responded by shooting a Smart Bomb, but Fox was ready and barrel rolled. Kirby dove to avoid the reflected explosive. Fox followed.

"This is tense!" cried Ness.

The two Smashers were streaking downwards at high speed. Kirby suddenly hit the brakes and looped, putting him behind Fox. He fired a Smart Bomb and pulled up into the sky.

"Wow-a!" cried Luigi.

"Good shot!" said Pikachu.

"You nailed him!" shouted Samus.

"Albatross!" yelped Yoshi.

Fox shook his head. "Well, you beat me. Fair and square."

"Wahooooo!" Kirby spun his craft around in dizzying motions.

"Computer, eject," said Fox.

The virtual world slowly faded, leaving the Smashers back in the helmets and chairs.

"That was awesome," said Yoshi as he disconnected himself.

"Oh yeah," agreed Pikachu.

"At least you guys enjoyed it," said Link. "I feel like going to bed for a bit."

"You'll get over it," said Fox. "But for now…to the next universe, I guess."


	6. Purple

**Chapter 6: Purple**

The Smashers appeared in Saturn Valley.

"Um, whoa." Yoshi looked around at the oddly-shaped surroundings and the Mr. Saturns wandering around obliviously. Various caves were dotted among the valley's walls.

"This is Saturn Valley," Ness said. "The Mr. Saturns live here. I have no idea what their deal is, but they don't speak English properly and seem somewhat…tweaked."

"Right then." Kirby walked up to the nearest Mr. Saturn. "Hey man, what's up?"

"Sky up is. Clouds well as. Boing!"

"So what is there to do here, Ness?" asked DK.

"Eh…there's not much here, really. But if we head over to Fourside…"

Ness was interrupted by something running by. Before anyone could tell what it was, it jumped onto the warp pad and vanished.

"What was that?" Link looked around confused.

"Well, whatever it was, it went into the Smashic Universe," said Fox.

"The existence of something that knows about the Smashic Universe this soon after it being discovered is suspicious," Samus said.

"We should-a follow it," said Mario. "I'd like-a to know anything about someone who-a knows about our-a new connection."

"Agreed," said Fox.

The Smashers all returned to the warp pad and left the Psykid Universe.

* * *

Once reappearing in the Smashic Universe, the mysterious figure was clearly visible, standing on the main platform. It was about Ness' height, humanoid, and apparently composed of large purple crystals.

Yoshi was the first to jump over. "Hey there, Mr. Purple Crystals. What's up?"

The figure turned around to face Yoshi. It had no face.

"No mouth, eh?" Yoshi thought for a bit. "Well, do you know sign language? Oh wait, you have no fingers. What?" Head scratching. "How can someone have no…well, Kirby doesn't. But he's not human. Obviously you're not. Do you have any paper with writing on it or something?"

By now, the rest of the Smashers had jumped to the main platform. The thing looked at each one in turn.

"Maybe it's timid," suggested Link.

Samus finished scanning the figure. "It says here this thing is made of some sort of unknown substance. It appears this substance is composed of only one type of particle. It also suggests that, despite its lack of apparent biological material, its mass, proportions, and psychic abilities are similar to Ness'."

"So it's like a fake clone or something?" asked Fox.

"Possibly."

The figure suddenly attacked. It leapt up into the air and planted a kick into Mario's head.

"OW!" Mario grabbed the figure by the ankles and threw it off the platform. It double jumped back and started running towards Pikachu.

"Oh no you don't!" The mouse shot a Thunderbolt at the apparent enemy, blasting it a great distance. After a few seconds there was a large explosion.

"That takes care of that, I guess," said Link.

"But it doesn't solve the mysteries of where it came from, why it came here, and how it managed to semi-copy Ness when he wasn't even around," said Fox.

Three more figures dropped from the sky onto the platform. One had a dinosaur-like shape, while the second was apish and the third resembled Falcon.

"You can't clone me!" Falcon shouted. He dashed towards his duplicate and gave it a powerful kick that set the target on fire. "Try that on for size!"

The creature responded by giving Falcon a knee to the face. Falcon gave it another kick to send it flying away.

"Hwah!" Yoshi gave his own clone a boot to the head followed up by a hearty head bash. He then lobbed an egg at the DK duplicate just before Fox kicked it away.

A fifth figure dropped from the sky, but Kirby ate it before anyone could tell what it was.

"How'd it taste?" asked Yoshi.

Kirby's face shifted around a bit. "Er…it didn't really have a taste."

"So what-a do we do about-a this?" asked Mario.

"I don't know," said Fox. "If I had to guess, I would say that there's a lot more out there than what we've seen, probably modelled after each one of us."

"And they attack on sight," added Link. "I guess you could expect that from shady clones."

"What do you know about this… stuff they're made out of?" asked Yoshi.

Samus read for a bit. "Not much. From what my scanner can tell, it's some sort of super-compressed crystalline structure. It gives off readings similar to those found near most spatial rifts."

"Well, we're kind of in a big rift right here," said Kirby.

"Hey, what's that?" Jigglypuff pointed at something in the distance.

"It looks like there's a planet out there," said Fox. "Just close enough to see."

"So finally this universe gets something other than a big platform in space," said Yoshi.

"I think we're moving towards it," thought DK. "But slowly."

"So the next time we come here, this platform might be on the ground," said Link.

Another enemy, this one shaped like Mario, dropped from the sky. Ness gave it a whack with his baseball bat.

"Well there's your problem!" Yoshi pointed to the sky. "There's some sort of pink crease up there!"

Indeed there was. A magenta rift hung over the platform.

"What's-a your scanner say about-a that?" Mario asked Samus.

"…well, it's called a vertexial string. But I can't understand what it's telling me about it - something about particle points and crystalline polygons, or something."

A Pikachu doppelganger dropped from the rift. DK smashed it far away.

Fox shot the rift a few times with his blaster. It shuddered and vanished.

"That seemed too easy," the pilot said.

"At least the things themselves are pretty easy to deal with," said Ness.

"That's for sure," said Falcon.

"My scanning system has decided to name the things "Polygons"," said Samus. "Apparently, it has something to do with how the vertexial string produces them."

"Polygons, eh?" Yoshi grabbed an apple from his hammerspace and munched it. "Polly want a cracker? Polly want a beating? POW! Polly gone!"

"Let's visit the next universe then," said Link.

The symbol of the next pad was a Mushroom.

"Back-a so soon, eh?" said Luigi.

"That's-a good," said Mario. "I-a have that feeling again."

"Oh zip it," said Yoshi. "Bowser's not on schedule to nab Peach for another year or so by my guess."


	7. Duodecamicitia

**Chapter 7: Duodecamicitia**

The entry pad to the Mushroom Universe was situated right beside the Warp Pipe in front of Mario's Pad. Various landscapes were visible in the distance, while a large castle was somewhat nearby.

Fox looked around. "For a princess-rescuer, you have a pretty modest house here."

"Well-a, we don't want to get a big-a head," said Mario.

Link looked over at the castle. "I assume that is the princess' castle?"

"One of-a many."

Samus looked at each visible tree, flower, and cloud. "I assume there's a reason for those black spots on pretty much everything?"

"They're eyes," said Luigi. "Nobody knows-a why."

Pikachu leapt into a bush and grabbed some of its berries. He started eating them once he gave them a small jolt.

"So what are we gonna do here?" asked Kirby excitedly.

"Let's see here…" Yoshi thought for a bit. "We could do some go-karting, we could head to the golf course, we could play some tennis, we could…"

Yoshi was interrupted by a Toad appearing out of the Warp Pipe. He looked worried.

"What's this?" asked Fox. "It looks like some sort of fungus."

"Don't call me an it!" the Toad blurted.

"He's a Toad. They're-a the main constituents of-a the Mushroom Kingdom," said Mario.

"So why're-a you here?" asked Luigi.

"Well, um…" The Toad shuffled his feet. "We don't know where Peach is."

"She visited my place not long ago," said Yoshi. "Go check there."

"Oh, okay then." The Toad made his back through the Warp Pipe.

"Phew!" Mario wiped his brow. "I was afraid that Bowser was up to-a no good again!"

"How d'you know I haven't been?"

A large shadow appeared of the group of Smashers. Bowser, in his Koopa Klown Kar, was descending from above, halting a short distance above the house's roof.

"Bowser!" cried Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and DK all at once.

"I know who I am, thank you very much." The King Koopa eyed the rest of the group. "Well well well. I see you've picked up some extra do-gooders at the local Toad-Mart."

"Whad'ya want, you big lug?" snapped Yoshi.

"Oh, nothing." Bowser twiddled his thumbs. "Just checking in to see how the local plumbers are occupying their spare time." He dropped a Warp Pipe nozzle out of the Klown Kar rather obviously. "Uh, whoops! Was saving that for something. Well, see you later." With a smirk, he flew off into the distance.

"I smell a trap," said Yoshi. "And if I can smell it, chances are it's for real."

"Trap or-a not, we have to see what he's up to!" Mario stretched his legs a bit. "And quickly, before-a he updates his plans to include all twelve-a of us!"

"So what does Bowser usually do?" asked Link.

"He-a kidnaps the princess," said Luigi. "The exact reason changes every-a-time, but mostly it's-a because he needs her royal stature for his world domination plans."

"As-a for his skills," continued Mario, "he can breathe-a fire and cause shockwaves by-a jumping, among other things."

"His castles are typically populated by various minions and lava," said Yoshi. "Oh, and his face. Can't get enough of that, apparently."

"Enough talk," said Falcon. "Let's get in there and rough him up!"

Mario took the Warp Pipe nozzle and hammered it into the ground. It quickly started burrowing towards its destination. After a few seconds, it popped back up. The Smashers each hopped in.

* * *

The Warp Pipe took the Smashers to the front gates of one of Bowser's many castles. Lightning laced the dark sky while waves of molten rock flowed down a lavafall.

Fox blinked a few times. "Uh, wow. That's a scenery shock."

Samus looked up at the drawbridge. "So how do you guys usually bust into these castles?"

"There's-a usually a back entrance of some kind," said Mario. "Or a hidden switch."

"FIRE!"

Up on the ramparts of the castle were a group of Koopas. They started shooting Bullet Bills down at the Smashers. They were easily dodged.

Kirby inhaled one of the projectiles and spat it back. "This is easy!"

The Koopas started mumbling to each other. Eventually one knocked another on the head before they all descended from view. The Bill Blasters stopped shooting.

"Fetchez la vache!" taunted Yoshi.

Machinery started clanking inside the castle. The drawbridge slowly descended.

Luigi took a step back. "That's-a strange. He never just lets us in like-a this."

"Well, this is a strange situation," said Mario. "We've-a got backup."

The Smashers cautiously walked into the castle. The main hall immediately presented itself: a large circular room with a balcony on the far side. A dozen doors were placed around the room with a thirteenth on the balcony. As could be expected, each door had a large Bowser statue just above it.

Before any of the Smashers could say anything, Bowser appeared on the balcony through the thirteenth door.

"Hello, weaklings!"

"Cut to the chase," said DK.

Bowser grabbed his chest in mock pain. "Oh! Your words cut me to the bone! Nah, not really."

"Does he always act like this?" asked Fox.

"Depends on his mood," replied Luigi. "He seems to be in a good-a mood today."

"You betcha." Bowser pretended to shine his claws. "Why? Because I have the princess, and there's no way you're getting her back this time!"

"You always-a think that," said Mario. "What-a makes it so different this time?"

"A little something I call the Duodecadeflector." The King Koopa checked a piece of paper. "Yeah that's right. Anyway, this state-of-the-art security system will keep you plumbers out of my hair for good."

"The plumbers aren't the only ones here," said Pikachu.

"Shut up, you gibbering rat." Bowser drummed his fingers on the balcony's railing. "Learn a few more syllables."

"I think "duodeca" means twelve," said Yoshi. "Well, there's twelve of us, so I think taking this thing down should be cake."

"Oh right." Bowser looked around. "I guess there is technically a chance you could beat this thing. But look at you! A big-headed kid, a dude in a dress, a pair of bubble gum wads, and Mario's brother? The bets are in, and I'm taking my own side."

"I'll-a take that bet," said Mario.

"Oh really?" Bowser leaned over the railing. "And what're your preferred terms of this bet?"

"If we can't get through, you keep-a Peach. If we beat your system, you-a never make one like it again."

"Hmm…" The big Koopa started thinking. "Well, if this thing works, you won't be able to cheat the bet, so that's fine. Now if it doesn't work…then I'll have wasted a lot of cash."

"That's for sure." Yoshi started pushing. "I bet a twelve-part system would be crazy expensive. Then there're all the workers that complain all day during construction. Building that kind of stuff wouldn't be worth it if it doesn't do as well as your regular security measures, right?"

"All right." Bowser clenched his fist. "I'll take your silly bet, Mario. On one condition."

"What's-a that?"

"If you don't beat the system in ten minutes, I never see any of these "new guys" ever again."

Luigi gasped. "Ten-a minutes?"

Mario ignored his brother's reservations. "Deal!"

Bowser smirked. "Your time starts…NOW!"

Mario quickly blurted a few instructions. "I would-a bet there's a lot of switches in this system. Buttons, levers, other-a things. If you see a lone-a block, smack it. If you see a torch, light it on-a fire. If it's already on fire, put it out. And move as fast a you-a can!"

The Smashers each bolted for a door. Every door lead to a different corridor in the same room - a massive labyrinth of interlinked switches and systems. Only the corridor Mario entered was clear to advance - some were closed off by doors while others had walls too high to climb.

"Aie aie aie," blurted Yoshi.

"Looks like we'll have to work through this as a team," said Link.

"And it looks like I'll-a have to go first," said Mario.

"No time to lose!" called Kirby.

Mario dashed down the hallway. He jumped on a few Goombas before reaching a closed gate and a floor switch. He stepped on it, unblocking the passage Samus was in. Samus immediately Speed Boosted down the hallway, cutting through layers of brick blocks that filled the passage. Once she reached a corner, she turned down it to find a dead end and a torch. Putting out the torch with the Ice Beam freed Jigglypuff.

Jigglypuff ran as fast as she could down the hallway before reaching a vertical shaft, which she easily puffed up through. At the top was a door and a button on the wall, which she pressed to open the door blocking Luigi. The green brother was immediately harassed by a bunch of Koopas. After a few well-timed jumps, the shells all flew through a hole in the wall, activating a switch that freed both Falcon and Fox.

Falcon only managed a few steps before he reached a large box. He started pushing it. The box slowly moved forwards through the wall and into Fox's hallway. Once the box was completely through the hole in the wall, Fox started pushing. The two kept pushing the box down the hall until it fell into the floor and down into Link's corridor, clearing the path and giving Link a stepping stone to proceed. The three Smashers fought through a bunch of Goombas to reach a large room with six floor switches, three green and three red.

"The green or the red?" asked Link.

Fox and Falcon looked at each other.

"Red."

"Green."

"Okay, red." The three stepped on the switches. Nothing happened.

"Looks like green," said Fox. The trio switched switches, which opened Yoshi's passage.

"Voom!" Yoshi launched himself down the hallway. He quickly got to a corner, turning it to find a small room with a bunch of Mushrooms on a table. A sign on the wall read: "All but one will make you fail; I suggest you turn your tail!"

"Scent sleuth time." The dino sniffed each Mushroom in turn. "Gunpower, poison, napalm, ashes, earwax, aha! Cinnamon." He ate the Mushroom, which caused the door blocking Kirby to open.

Kirby was immediately confronted by two pairs of Hammer Bros. He quickly swallowed one of their hammers and became Hammer Kirby, which let him bash through them without difficulty. In the back corner of the room was a large wooden stake, which Kirby pounded into the ground. This opened two doors, one which allowed Pikachu to enter and another that let them both leave.

The next corridor was flooded with water and riddled with Cheep-Cheeps and Bloopers.

"Stand back, Kirby!" Pikachu waved for Kirby to back off.

"Um, sure, I'll stay here." The puffball stayed where he was as Pikachu jumped into the water.

"PIKAAAAAbblbblb!"

Pikachu fired a Thunderbolt that tore through the hallway, destroying all the fishy enemies.

"Good one!" Kirby jumped in as Pikachu came up for air.

"Six minutes left, you sorry lot!" Bowser's voice echoed through the maze.

The two Smashers swam through the now-empty hallway. At the end was a large rock. Kirby smashed it with his hammer, draining the room and opening another. The pair stepped on the two switches inside, which let Ness start on his path. The hall led to a room with several torches. It took a few tries, but Ness managed to light them all with PK Fire, which opened the door DK was standing in front of. The ape was immediately confronted by a Sumo Bro. After a few haymakers, the fat turtle was smashed into the wall. DK moved on to a very large button on the floor. A few ground-shaking pounds caused it to unstick, opening up Mario and Luigi's hallways - which merged into each other.

Mario looked at his brother. "Why am I not surprised-a?"

Luigi shrugged.

The two plumbers dashed through the passage, jumping over and on a bunch of Buzzy Beetles. They pulled a lever at the end of the hall to open the door blocking Jigglypuff. The balloon Pokémon quickly dropped down a shaft and landed right on DK's head just as the ape's passage was also opened. DK started barrelling down the hallway, tearing right through a load of Dry Bones. At the end of the hallway was a Note Block. DK instinctively punched the block, but it just bounced back into place.

Jigglypuff looked at the note marking on the block. "Maybe it needs music or something." The block wiggled a bit.

DK looked up. "I don't know what you said, but it did something."

"Here goes then." Jigglypuff took a deep breath and started singing. After a dozen or so notes, the Note Block vanished, leaving a rather large switch behind. The Pokémon stopped singing and tried to press the switch, but she was too light.

"Hey DK, can you press this?" Jigglypuff suddenly noticed that the big ape was fast asleep. "Wake up!" She used Double Slap, which roused DK.

"What the heck is going…" DK looked around. "I have no idea what happened there." He quickly noticed the switch and gave it a smack. Two passageways opened up.

Jigglypuff looked to the left. "Doesn't look like we can go that way." The path was blocked by a very large block.

"That way's definitely blocked," said DK. "That's some kind of metal, I can't punch through that."

An orange sphere about one meter large flew into the junction from the unblocked passage. It rolled up to the block.

"Stand back!"

While greatly confused about where Samus' voice came from, DK put Jigglypuff back on his head and leaped away. A few seconds later there was a massive explosion. Samus walked out of the debris.

"What-" began DK.

"Power Bomb." Samus started moving down the newly opened hallway.

"But what about-"

"Later. We have four minutes."

The three Smashers moved down the hallway. After a bit, they dropped down into the room with Fox, Falcon, and Link.

"That's half of us in one group," said Fox.

"Let's hit all six switches at one," suggested Link.

The three red and three green switches were pressed. Yoshi was once again free to move. He rushed forwards, leaping over a pit of spikes, before coming to a wooden blockade.

"One spicy fruit comin' up!" Yoshi ate a Red Watermelon, allowing him to set the obstacle on fire. The next room had another wooden wall, as well as an open passageway.

"Behind here!" Kirby called from behind the wooden planks. Yoshi burned a hole that allowed the puffball and Pikachu to join him. The trio dashed down the hall, coming to a pit of lava.

"Time for more jumping." Yoshi easily cleared the lava. Kirby followed, a bit slower. Pikachu didn't move.

"What's wrong?" asked Kirby.

"I'm not jumping over that! It's too scary!"

"I don't care what you said, we're on a deadline here!" Yoshi nabbed Pikachu from across the pool with his tongue. Meanwhile, Kirby was pressing a pair of buttons that allowed Mario, Luigi, and Ness into the room.

"That half of us now," said Ness.

Mario looked at the lava pit and started preparing to jump over it.

"No no no, wrong way," said Yoshi.

"Oh." Mario turned around and started running the right direction. The five other Smashers followed.

The hallway incorporated a lot of turns, making it difficult to move quickly. Eventually, the Smashers dropped down into the room with the second group.

"Ninety seconds!" bellowed Bowser.

A camera in the corner of the room detected that there were now twelve bodies in the room. In response, the room's back wall dissolved, revealing what was obviously the final room. Peach was trapped inside a magical barrier in the center of the room. Around the room's perimeter were twelve numbered switches.

"Every-a-one onto a switch!" called Mario.

The Smashers all leaped onto the switches. But nothing happened.

"There's gotta be a trick," said Fox.

Link spied a sign on the wall. "Hey guys! This says something." He cleared his throat. "No time to wait, your burden is heavy! But light comes last, so hah!"

"What's the point of that?" asked Falcon.

"The words "wait", "heavy", and "light" are a bit thicker."

The Smashers thought for a few seconds.

Samus spoke first. "We have to get in order of weight."

"And "light comes last", so the lightest goes on switch 12," said Yoshi.

"That's probably me." Jigglypuff went to switch 12.

"And I'll be on the other end." DK leaped onto switch 1.

"That suit looks heavy," Ness said to Samus. "You're probably next heaviest."

"Probably. Then Yoshi, he has a lot of mass."

"I always thought that-a Yoshi was a lightweight," said Mario.

"I may act pretty light, but I definitely have more gravity than you." Yoshi stood on switch 3. "And now those two, they're pretty big guys." He pointed to Link and Falcon.

"In what order?" asked Link.

"If it's wrong, we'll just switch you." Kirby stood on switch 11. "Pikachu, I think you go here." He pointed to switch 10.

"That makes sense."

"Thirty seconds!" Bowser laughed.

"Ness, you're probably 9," said Fox.

"And I'm-a bit lighter than my bro," said Luigi.

"Get-a on 7 then." Mario stood on switch 6.

With the Smashers in a perceived order, all the switches were filled up. One by one, the switches changed colour from red to green.

"Seventeen…sixteen…"

The barrier around Peach vanished. Various Smashers made signs of success.

"Fourteen…thirteen…"

"Why's he still counting?" asked Kirby.

"Maybe he can't see us?" wondered DK.

Samus had a guess. "ESCAPE!"

"Eight…seven…"

The Smashers leapt into action. Mario, Luigi, and Peach all jumped onto Yoshi, who quickly used pepper to sneeze himself out of the room. Samus grabbed DK with her Grapple Beam and Speed Boosted away, while Ness teleported out and Falcon and Fox just ran. Link used Farore's Wind to warp to the entrance of the maze, and Kirby and Jigglypuff rode an Agility-powered Pikachu.

"Two…one…TIME'S UP!"

A loud humming noise could be heard from inside the maze. It subsided after a few seconds.

"Good thing…Link's path was…really short," Fox panted.

All the Smashers had escaped from the maze into the castle's main hall. Bowser was still standing on the balcony, obviously irritated.

"You lose!" blurted Yoshi.

"You planned to trap us in-a there once we were all in a group," said Mario.

Samus scanned one of the doors to the maze. "Susceptibility waves. They would have hypnotized anyone in there."

"You do-gooders think you're so smart," Bowser grunted.

"We made a deal," stated Mario.

Bowser grumbled. Smoke came out his ears. "Fine. No more security systems that require twelve people. Now get out of my sight."

The Smashers, with Peach in tow, left the castle quickly. Once outside, they breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"That Bowser's quite a guy," said Fox.

"That about sums it up." Yoshi fished through his hammerspace for a can of 7-Up.

"So how long after we-a left Yoshi's Island did Bowser capture you?" asked Mario.

"About half an hour," replied Peach. "Someone must have tipped him off."

Link rubbed his elbows. "Do you mind if we have a rest in your castle or something?"

"Go ahead. I'm sure we have enough rooms for you all."

"And once we're all rested up, we head to the next universe," said Falcon.

"Hopefully there's not so much chaos involved," a worn-out Ness said.


	8. Communication

**Chapter 8: Communication**

"WAH!"

The lab-coated man leapt backwards, landing on his butt.

"Hello?" Having just appeared on the entry pad, Pikachu walked over to the fallen guy.

The man mumbled a bit to himself. "Apparently the device is capable of teleporting Pokémon from one locale to another." He made a few notes in his notebook before getting up. By the time he was upright, Jigglypuff and Kirby had also appeared.

"Looks pretty okay," said Kirby. "We might get a little lost, though, since you two can't really tell us anything."

"…I need some water." The man hurried inside a nearby house. "Teleporting Pikachus, talking Jigglypuffs, what next?"

Kirby shrugged. "He must be confused."

One by one, the rest of the Smashers appeared.

"Bit of an average place," said Link.

The town the group had appeared in was rather small - there were only a few houses.

"I think we spooked a local," said Kirby. Pikachu nodded.

The local in question came back out of his house, rubbing his eyes. He noticed that there were now twelve newcomers - what looked to be five humans, an ape, a fox, a robot, and four Pokémon.

"This is certainly an exciting day."

"Ain't that the truth." Yoshi snatched a fruit from a nearby bush.

The man squinted. "But…aren't you a Pokémon?"

"Me? Not last I checked. Those two are, though."

"We're from, uh, other universes," said Fox.

"Ah, I see. Well, I suppose I should introduce myself. I am Professor Samuel Oak."

Pikachu's ears immediately perked up. Jigglypuff also seemed to recognize the name.

"I was studying that device you seem to have appeared from," the professor said. "When the Pikachu appeared, I was quite surprised, and then things just got even more confusing."

"I wouldn't blame you," said DK. "I'm still getting used to the whole other-universes thing."

"A strange phenomenon indeed." Prof. Oak absently fiddled with his notepad. "Other universes without Pokémon, but with animals that talk, or humans with large round noses. Er, relatively."

"So you're a professor?" asked Mario.

"Yes, that's right. I do Pokémon-based research and development. In fact, I completed a new invention just the other day." Prof. Oak reached into one of his pockets and held up what looked like a pair of bulky, futuristic-looking clothespins.

"Industrial-strength sneeze inhibitors?" asked Yoshi.

"Hardly. These were designed to act as Pokémon translation devices."

Pikachu jumped up and down. "Do they work? Do they work?"

The professor chuckled. "Well, you're happy to hear that, aren't you? But don't get too excited. My tests so far have not yielded optimal results."

"What does that mean?" asked Ness.

"They produced strange grammar. Circular metaphors. Consonant randomization. In a word, gibberish. I'm not a linguistics expert, but they seem to require more work."

"Aww." Pikachu drooped. Jigglypuff also looked disappointed.

"There is hope, though. I do not yet have a high enough sample size to make any conclusions."

"So you need more testing?" asked Link.

"Exactly." Professor Oak looked at the two Pokémon. "I don't suppose you two would like to be test subjects?"

"Yeah!"

"Yes!"

"That sounded pretty enthusiastic." The professor looked at the other Smashers. "Who are the Trainers here?"

"Uh, trainers?" Fox looked around. "You mean us?"

"These Pokémon do belong to someone, right?"

"No way! We don't belong to anyone!" Pikachu spouted.

"They never attached themselves to anyone when we first met," said DK. "And they seem to be pretty independent."

"Hm. Interesting." Oak jotted down some notes. "Well, we'll give it a shot."

The professor took the two large pins and put one on each of the two Pokémon's right ears. He then pulled an optometrist's poster out of one of his pockets and held it up. "Now, can you read this out loud?"

Pikachu looked at the poster. "Uh, T, O, F, O, F, N, S, T." His speech was flecked with static, but it was perfectly understandable English.

"Good!" Oak wrote some stuff down. "Now you, Jigglypuff."

"T, O, F, O, F, N, S, T." Jigglypuff's speech was overlaid with a constant B-flat tone.

"Hm. Just a moment." The professor used a skewer to poke a few bits of the pin. "Okay, try it again."

"T, O, F, O, F, N, S, T." The note was gone.

"Good!" A few notes in the notebook. "Now for something a bit more complicated." Oak brought out a sheet of paper with a phrase printed on it.

Jigglypuff spoke first. "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." Pikachu followed suit.

"Awesome." Yoshi took a sip of Coca-Cola. "You're sweet, professor-man."

"Don't congratulate me just yet. It's this next test that is the most important." A slight pause. "What moves do you know?"

Pikachu thought for a moment. "Moves…well, I know a bunch of ways to shoot electricity at stuff. And that one where I concentrate so I can move faster. And tackling stuff."

"Superb!" Oak scribbled madly. "Worlds better than any previous Pokémon I've tested." More writing. "Your turn."

Jigglypuff pondered. "I can sing and punch stuff. Oh, and go to sleep and heal."

"Also superb!" The professor accidentally put a hole is his paper. "Whoops." Furious scribbling.

"Way to beat the odds," said Fox.

"Oh, I doubt this is a lucky occurrence," said Oak. "I have an old theory that fits this data…but it's too early to tell."

"What theory?" asked Pikachu.

"I don't think it's appropriate to mention it yet. Suffice to say, you two appear to be the smartest Pokémon I have ever seen."

The two Pokémon simply smiled.

"Well, nice meeting you, Mr. Oak," said Link, "but we've got places to go."

"Of course." Oak moved towards Pikachu.

Pikachu backed away. "I wanna keep it."

A pause. "Excuse me?"

Jigglypuff spoke up. "The earpin thingies. We'd like to keep them. So we can be understood by the others."

Oak's brow furrowed. "Hm. I shouldn't be too surprised, to be honest. But I'm afraid I cannot simply give them away. I can make more, yes, but the process is rather complex, and the components are not exactly inexpensive." He thought for a bit. "However, there is a way I could part with them."

"A test of some sort?" asked Samus.

"In a way." The professor dipped into his pocket and brought out six Pokéballs. "We are going to have a Pokémon battle."

Pikachu's response was immediate. "Let's do it!"

Jigglypuff seemed more apprehensive, but nodded.

"Wait what?" asked Yoshi.

"We fight for the thingies!" cried Pikachu. "Us against his guys."

"Umm…okay." Fox eyed the Pokéballs. "But there's only two of you…he has six of those ball things."

"Whatever! We'll beat them all!" Pikachu was really raring to go.

Oak scratched his beard. "I have to admit I haven't done this in a while…and fighting two Pokémon at once will be interesting…but, such is the way it goes. Let the battle begin!"

_Prof. Oak would like to battle!_

_Pikachu and Jigglypuff are ready!_

The professor threw two of the Pokéballs at the ground. Out of one came a three-tailed bull with a brown mane, while the other unleashed a two-legged tree with three coconut-like heads.

_Prof. Oak sent out Tauros and Exeggutor!_

Various Smashers took a few seconds to adjust to what was going on.

"So…you fight with your pets?" asked Link.

"In a way, in a way," replied the professor. "We tend to think of them more as companions."

"Don't just stand there, Pikachu!" called Jigglypuff.

"Right." Pikachu fired a bolt of energy at the Tauros.

_Pikachu used Thunder Shock!_

_It's a critical hit!_

_Tauros took 102 damage!_

"Woo-hoo!" called Kirby.

"Take-a that!" cheered Mario.

_Tauros' Anger Point skyrockets its Attack!_

The bull turned red, smoke streaming out of its ears. The Smashers' mood turned from energetic to shocked.

_Tauros used Take Down!_

"Oh crap oh crap oh crap!" Pikachu saw the slam coming and bolted. After a bit of chasing around, the attack wore out.

_It missed!_

"That was a close one," said DK.

_Exeggutor is charging solar energy!_

"Someone's gonna have to move when it lets that go," said Yoshi.

Jigglypuff pointed at Tauros. Her eyes glinted blue.

_Jigglypuff used Disable!_

_Tauros' Take Down was disabled!_

"Looks like we're in a bit tougher than we thought," said Pikachu. "I'll have to use some of my more straining moves." He wound up and fired a much larger jolt.

_Pikachu used Thunderbolt!_

_Tauros took 100 damage!_

_Tauros fainted._

Various Smashers cheered at the first knockout. Some others still weren't sure what to make of the battle.

"Good show!" said Oak, retrieving his Tauros back into its Pokéball. "I daresay you have a pretty good shot to win this. Of course, I won't make it easy on you."

The tree-like Pokémon stood back and launched a massive laser beam at Jigglypuff.

_Exeggutor used Solarbeam!_

"AIE!"

The force of the attack propelled Jigglypuff into a bush quite a long way away.

_Jigglypuff took 259 damage!_

"Are you okay?" Kirby started running after her.

_Jigglypuff used Rest!_

"Oh." Kirby picked her up and reported back to the Smashers. "She looks fine, but she's asleep."

"She used Rest," said Pikachu. "Completely heals, but puts you to sleep."

A massive blue serpent appeared, its roar knocking various Smashers down.

_Prof. Oak sent out Gyarados!_

_Gyarados Intimidates Pikachu and Jigglypuff, cutting their attack!_

"This is certainly…interesting," said Fox.

"Pokémon battles are a complex game, with some calling them an art form," stated the professor. "With Pokémon only having the memory for four moves, and each move having a different effect and effectiveness on various targets, it is extremely difficult to create a perfect team."

"Speaking of effectiveness…" Pikachu attacked again.

_Pikachu used Thunderbolt!_

Unlike previous attacks, the sound of the impact had a piercing undertone that echoed around.

_It's super effective!_

_Gyarados took 239 damage!_

_Gyarados fainted._

"Okay, now I'm really confused," said Link. "Why did that guy get knocked down in one hit?"

The professor explained. "Thunderbolt is an Electric attack, and both of Gyarados' types - Water and Flying - are weak to that element. Not to mention that Pikachu gained same-type-attack-bonus, since he's also Electric, and that intimidation only weakens physical attacks."

"Who cares how it works?" said Falcon. "It's cool, it's fun to watch, and it sure beats boxing for my money. Which says a lot, since I have tons of money."

"Whatev-" Pikachu was cut off by being stepped on by Oak's remaining Pokémon.

_Exeggutor used Stomp!_

_Pikachu took 66 damage!_

_Jigglypuff is still asleep._

"C'mon, wake up already, I'm fighting a two-on-one here!"

Oak sent out his next Pokémon, a very large snake comprised of boulders.

_Prof. Oak sent out Onix!_

"There's quite a variety among-a Pokémon," said Mario.

"There are a hundred and forty-nine Pokémon species at last count," said Oak, "although there are probably more in other regions, and I've heard rumours of one more in this one."

Pikachu glared at the Onix. "You look pretty familiar…but whatever. Eat this!" The Electric-type focused a great deal of energy, finally causing a bolt of lightning to drop from the sky.

_Pikachu used Thunder!_

_It doesn't affect Onix…_

There was a stunned silence. The Onix simply laughed.

"…W-w-what the crap was that crap?" stammered Pikachu. "I aimed for the horn and everything!"

"You can't believe everything you see on TV," said the professor.

The Onix dug its head into the ground and pulled out a large rock, which it threw at Pikachu.

_Onix used Rock Throw!_

"OW!"

_Pikachu took 88 damage!_

"Right in the bean," said Yoshi. "Pika seems down to near nothing."

The Exeggutor looked over at Pikachu, staring at him.

_Exeggutor used Hypnosis!_

_It missed!_

_Jigglypuff is still asleep._

"C'mon Pikachu!" cheered Ness.

Pikachu started thinking very hard. After a minute or two, he leapt into action, firing a wave of electricity at Exeggutor.

_Pikachu used Thunder Wave!_

_Exeggutor is paralyzed!_

_Onix used Rock Throw!_

_Jigglypuff took 92 damage!_

_Jigglypuff woke up!_

"…hm…hmm…oh, what's going…AAH!"

"Naptime's over, Jiggs!" Pikachu blurted. "Do something!"

Jigglypuff started running at Exeggutor. There was a massive impact.

_Jigglypuff used Double-Edge!_

_A critical hit!_

_Exeggutor took 186 damage!_

_Jigglypuff took 62 recoil damage!_

There was some cheering from the Smashers, but it was apparent that their team was losing.

_Exeggutor is paralyzed! It can't move!_

"We're not gonna lose!" cried Pikachu. He unleashed another Thunder attack, this one directed at the Exeggutor.

_Pikachu used Thunder!_

_It missed!_

"NOT FAIR!!!" Pikachu was in a bit of a frenzy.

The Onix tensed up before letting loose a shockwave along the ground.

"Oh no…" muttered Jigglypuff.

_Onix used Earthquake!_

The ground suddenly erupted, knocking all the other Pokémon down.

_It's super effective!_

_Pikachu took 120 damage!_

_Jigglypuff took 64 damage!_

_It's not very effective…_

_Exeggutor took 20 damage!_

"Hm." Oak wrote something down. "Note: Earthquake hits all Pokémon regardless of alliances."

_Pikachu fainted._

"Noooooooo…" Pikachu flopped face-first onto the ground.

Various Smashers called out in disappointment.

"PIKACHU!!!" Jigglypuff turned to the Exeggutor. "YOU DIE NOW!" She leaped up into the air and launched a massive pulse of fire, the recoil blasting her backwards into a tree.

_Jigglypuff used Fire Blast!_

_It missed!_

"How do you know Fire Blast?" asked the professor.

Jigglypuff dropped out of the tree. "I don't know…it just happened, I guess."

"Fascinating." More scribbling.

_Exeggutor used Barrage!_

Five large round objects flew through the air and whacked Jigglypuff.

_Jigglypuff took 100 damage (5 hits)!_

_Jigglypuff fainted._

The balloon Pokémon partially deflated.

"Well then," started Oak. "I'm afraid that's that, as they say."

Kirby stepped forward. "No it's not."

"I'm sorry, but there was an agreement. I was not defeated, so they do not earn the translation earpins."

"But it wasn't fair! You have six guys, there's only two of them!"

"Hm." Chin-scratching. "I suppose that is true. However, unless you happen to have more Pokémon to battle with…"

"I'll fight myself!" Kirby stated. "Where I come from, we do the work ourselves!"

"If you believe you can handle what you have seen, I have no objection. But remember, I have six Pokémon. You cannot just go through your entire group - there can only be four more challengers."

"Well, I'm in!" Kirby stepped into the battle.

_Kirby was switched in!_

"I'm in too." Yoshi stretched his legs and followed. "Us big eaters can handle these Pokédudes, what say?"

_Yoshi was switched in!_

"Now, since you are new to this, I feel I must give you a few tips," said Oak. "Firstly, there are fifteen known Pokémon types, and each Pokémon can have either one or two of them. As I said before, the type of an attack versus the types of the target significantly affects the damage done."

"What types are we?" asked Kirby.

"One cannot always tell by just looking. But we will soon find out."

"Let's get this on." Yoshi threw an egg at Exeggutor.

_Yoshi used Egg Bomb!_

_Exeggutor took 86 damage!_

_Exeggutor fainted._

"Take that, you tropical twighead!"

Kirby walked toward Onix. "Hmm…rock candy." He inhaled the giant Pokémon.

_Kirby used Transform!_

Once Onix reappeared, Kirby had turned grey and craggy, and had a horn.

_Kirby is now Onix!_

"Cool!" Kirby jumped, making the ground shake as he landed.

_Onix used Double Team!_

A second Onix suddenly appeared.

_Onix's evasiveness rose!_

"What in the hey?" blurted Yoshi.

Samus scanned the apparition. "It's a projection. It basically made itself harder to hit."

There was a flash, and a large red dog with tiger-like stripes appeared.

_Prof. Oak sent out Arcanine!_

_Arcanine Intimidates Yoshi and Kirby, cutting their attack!_

Yoshi looked at the two Pokémon. "Hm. I think I'll go after you first." He walked up to Onix and delivered a karate chop.

_Yoshi used Karate Chop!_

_It's super effective!_

_Onix took 30 damage!_

"Okay, that didn't do much at all."

The Arcanine started digging into the ground. Within moments it was completely invisible.

_Arcanine dug a hole!_

"Hey Kirbs, can you reach him in that hole?" asked Yoshi.

"I think so…I think I can do all the stuff that the guy I ate does." Kirby gave the ground a pound, sending out a shockwave.

_Kirby used Earthquake!_

_It's super effective!_

_Onix took 38 damage!_

_It's super effective!_

_Arcanine took 119 damage!_

_Yoshi took 30 damage!_

"HEY!" Yoshi stood up. "Use something a bit more aimed next time!"

"Uh, oops."

_Onix used Harden!_

_Onix's Defense rose!_

"Ugh, this is going nowhere fast." Yoshi pulled out a red pepper. "Hey Kirbs, munch on this."

_Yoshi used a Red Pepper on Kirby!_

"Ooh!" Kirby chowed down. "Yummy!"

_Kirby's attack rose sharply!_

The Arcanine popped out of the ground right underneath Yoshi.

_Arcanine used Dig!_

_Yoshi took 64 damage!_

"Sneak attacks, eh?" Yoshi said. "I see how it is."

"In a Pokémon battle, you must be prepared for anything," Oak said.

_Kirby used Earthquake!_

_It's super effective!_

_Onix took 80 damage!_

_Onix fainted._

_It's super effective!_

_Arcanine took 128 damage!_

_Arcanine fainted._

_Yoshi took 71 damage!_

Multiple Smashers cheered at the double knockout.

_Prof. Oak sent out Magneton!_

Three identical, small spherical robots with one eye and magnets for hands appeared.

"Magneton is a fascinating Pokémon," said the professor. "Not only is it composed of three Magnemites working together, but it appears to have a secondary type that is as yet uncatalogued."

"Good for it." Yoshi threw an egg. "Too bad he's your last guy."

_Yoshi used Egg Bomb!_

_It's not very effective…_

_Magneton took 20 damage!_

"The secondary typing appears to be resistant to nine of the fifteen known types," Oak continued. "I have hypothesised it stems from its metallic body."

_Kirby used Earthquake!_

_It's super effective!_

_Magneton took 256 damage!_

_Magneton fainted._

_Prof. Oak is out of usable Pokémon!_

_The Smashers win!_

The Smashers cheered.

"Impressive job." Oak reached into a pocket and brought out a pair of spray bottles. "I'm sure your friends will be happy to hear the result of this battle." He sprayed Pikachu and Jigglypuff.

Pikachu quickly sat up before flopping onto his back. "Oy…that hurt…"

Jigglypuff slowly inflated to regular size. "We lost, didn't we?"

"On the contrary. Your two friends here stepped in and defeated me in your stead."

"Really?" Pikachu sat up again. "We won?!"

"Yep." Yoshi had somehow procured a two-foot long sub sandwich. "Me 'n' Kirbs. Well, Kirby did most of the work, to be honest."

"Whee!" Kirby discarded the Onix guise. "It was fun!"

"So we get the pins?" asked Jigglypuff.

"Yes, the translation earpins are now yours," said Oak.

"SWEET!" Pikachu leaped up into the air.

"A few guidelines with them: They run on rechargeable AA batteries; when they get low a red light will go on and you'll hear a soft humming noise. If you feel any ear pain, just put it on the other ear. You could place them on something other than your ear, but I've noticed they work better the closer to your head they are. I'm not sure how durable they are - if they become damaged, I'll gladly fix them for you. You can't speak in your native language with the pin attached."

"This is one of the best days ever," Pikachu said.

"Yeah," Jigglypuff concurred.

"And don't forget to come back here sometime…I have a good feeling about you two." The professor smiled. "You're not just any Pokémon."


	9. Branch

**Chapter 9: Branch**

The first thing most Smashers noticed about the jungle was the humidity.

"Woo!" Fox wiped his forehead. "I'd say it's like a jungle in here, but it wouldn't have the desired effect."

"Heh, it does do that to people." DK pointed at a treehouse partly visible through the trees. "That's my place up there. And if I'm not mistaken…"

Diddy leaped from a nearby tree and landed on DK's head.

"'Sup DK!"

The ape laughed. "You rascal!" He grabbed Diddy by the tail and pulled him off. "Not the welcome I was expecting."

"This your friend?" asked Link.

"Yep. He's Diddy. A bit of a nutter, but he's got a good attitude."

"These the guys from the other places?" asked Diddy. "Some o' them look kinda funny."

"I don't look funny!" Falcon blurted, obviously assuming the comment was directed at him.

"So what d'you have here?" asked Yoshi. "Trees and bananas, obviously, but other than that. I mean, it can't be all jungle."

"Well, that's the most of it."

"So what're we gonna do?"

The ape started thinking. Some of the others offered suggestions.

"How about some exterminating?" Ness had a dozen bugs circling his head.

"Banana-eating contest!" Kirby spurted.

"Let's have a party!" suggested Diddy.

"How 'bout a race?" Falcon flexed a bit.

"Race!" DK snapped his fingers. "That sounds good."

"A race?" Fox pulled on a hanging vine. "In this…uh…mess?"

"Yeah, this won't end well." Yoshi scratched his nose. "I mean, for one, DK has a big advantage."

"Well, it could be a time trial." DK worked through his mental map. "We could start from here, go that way to the orange tree, turn right towards the banana storage hut, then turn right again and finish at my place. I'll give you guys a head start."

The Smashers looked around to find the two landmarks.

"Sounds good! Let's do it!" Falcon was obviously ready to go.

"Not me. I'm-a out." Luigi sat down on a log. "I'm-a too slow for a race."

"Me too." Jigglypuff sat down beside Luigi.

"Tell you what," said DK. "You two can be the timekeepers."

There was a pause as everyone considered the race. After a short while, there was a chorus of "Nah"'s.

"We've done too much active stuff," said Ness.

"Yeah, let's just do some sitting back for a while," agreed Fox.

DK shrugged. "If you say so. Diddy, let's make us some banana splits."

Diddy did a flip and a clap before rushing back to the treehouse. Everyone else followed.

The main room of the wooden building contained a table, a fridge, a couch, and a TV. It was just big enough for everyone to sit down somewhere.

"Order up!" Diddy pulled a large tub of ice cream out of the fridge's freezer, quickly followed by a bunch of bananas and other fruit from a cupboard.

"The works," Yoshi said instantly. Kirby jumped and pointed at Yoshi with a "what he said" look on his face.

The other Smashers didn't load up so much. After a few minutes, the conversation started.

"So what do you do, DK?" asked Link. "I mean, I'm on a quest, Mario saves his kingdom, what about you?"

"Well, there's this crazy crocodile out there called K. Rool," replied the ape. "He seems to have it in for me and my buddies - stealing my bananas, trying to take over or destroy the land, stuff like that. And he's frustratingly good at getting the jump on us."

"Why would a crocodile want a hoard of bananas?" asked Fox.

DK shrugged. "Beats me. I think it's to distract us while he sets up his doomsday machine or something, but he doesn't seem to get that they lead us right to him."

"Hey wait," said Pikachu. "How did Mario get involved with that Bowser thing anyway?"

"Funny story," Yoshi started. "Back when them brothers were born and Bowser was only like two or three, the evil king's advisor Kamek foresaw that Mario and Luigi would be a big pain in the future. So he decided to abduct them. The hospital was running a novelty get-a-stork-to-bring-the-kids-to-your-house service, and that's when they grabbed Luigi. They failed to get Mario, though. He dropped onto Yoshi's Island, where a bunch of us carried him all the way to Bowser's Castle to rescue Luigi and the stork. Since they had to take a portal to get there, it's possible Bowser would have never met us if Kamek hadn't interfered. Of course, if he didn't interfere, he wouldn't have foreseen the problem, so you've got a time paradox there."

"Wait, you're that old?" asked Kirby.

"Nah, that was a few weeks before my time."

"What about you, Samus?" asked Falcon. "So you said you're a bounty hunter?"

"That's right. Every time the Federation police fail, they call me. Like whenever Metroids are involved."

"What's a meter-oid?" asked Ness.

"They're energy predators. The Space Pirates enjoy using them as research, as well as turning them loose on their enemies."

"And the Feds fail to deal with them?" Yoshi chomped on a piece of pinapple.

"Yes, mostly because they're immune to almost all forms of attack, even in the larval stage. In theory, they're now extinct, but you can bet they'll be back sometime."

"What's your story, Ness?" asked Link.

"Really weird." Ness thought for a bit. "I don't even know if I can explain it that well. It was mostly like stopping an alien invasion, but there was a bunch of other strange stuff that happened as well, and then at the end we had to fight this warping monster thing that wouldn't die until Paula started praying."

"And what about you two?" DK asked the Pokémon.

Pikachu shrugged. "We don't really have that kind of story. We haven't saved the world, we're not part of some famous trainer's team, we've never seen a rare Pokémon, nothing. Aside from being able to use these translator thingies, we're completely normal. I have no idea why we're in an all-star group."

"And Kirby," Yoshi said. "You say you're a big eater, eh?"

"Uh-huh. That's pretty much all I do, aside from stopping Dedede and a bunch of other scary stuff from taking things over." Kirby ate a bit more. "Oh, and Meta Knight. I still don't really know if he's on my side or not."

"What was that thing back in the Bowser castle when you had a headband and a hammer?" asked Pikachu.

"That's my copy ability. Observe." Kirby grabbed an arrow out of Link's quiver and ate it.

"Hey!"

There was a poof and Kirby developed a pink helmet with yellow spikes attached to it. "Since I ate something sharp, I'm now Needle Kirby!"

"So you ate a hammer and became Hammer Kirby?"

"Yep." Kirby made a funny noise, which caused the hat to turn into a star and bounce out the window. "I've been able to copy a whole bunch of stuff."

The Smashers kept talking about themselves. Once the food was gone, the conversation slowed down.

"That food gets an 8," said Yoshi. "Good stuff."

"I can't disagree with that," Fox said. "I guess the jungle is good for that kind of stuff."

"Uh-huh." DK straightened his tie. "But we're gonna go somewhere else now, right?"

Diddy leaped onto the ceiling. "Can I come with you guys?"

"That's probably not a good idea," said Link. "We were the ones invited, and while we haven't seen any kind of boss, I don't think they'd be happy."

"Yeah, what's up about that?" wondered Pikachu. "Why haven't we seen a leader or repre...reprezen...uh, representatif?"

"Beats-a me." Mario stood up. "Well, we might as well go now."


	10. Landing

**Chapter 10: Landing**

"Welcome...to my place!" Falcon stated, significantly louder than he ought to have been.

The Smashers had appeared in the back corner of Falcon's personal garage. Despite the state of 2560's technology, it looked very much like a garage of the 1990's - mostly concrete, tubes of lights on the ceiling, and full of the scents of various vehicle fluids.

"Eyuk." Yoshi shook his head. "Smells like...uh, well, it smells like how it looks."

"I like it old-school." Falcon walked out of the corner in a manner that could easily be described as strutting. "A lot of racers, they like having garages that clean themselves up, with pretty white walls and carpet floors and bots that do the work for them, while they sit back at the terminal and do nothing but point and click. But not me! I want to know my machine inside-out and get my hands dirty buffing it up."

"So, uh, both these are yours?" Fox indicated the two parked vehicles.

"That's right." Falcon walked over to the smaller one. "This one here's the Blue Falcon, my racing machine. Super speed, great control, and let's not forget the fan base. Made every promotional poster and such produced for the past two years, and most of the ones before that." He turned to the larger ship. "THIS one, on the other hand, is the Falcon Flyer. It ain't for racing; instead it's well-equipped for my bounty-hunting runs. Sometimes I even use it as a base while I go on an autograph run."

Falcon then gave a short pause while he made a smug smile; one could imagine it being the kind of face shown on a box of cereal. He then continued his tirade.

"Anyway, the free-time bounty hunting is pretty fun. And let me tell you, I get a lot of free time in the off-season. I get to chase after a whole bunch of unruly dudes and pummel the daylights out of 'em. I use Pyrogloves and Pyroboots for the job; it really freaks some of them out when a burning hole appears in the wall. I think it really gives me a sigma out on the track; those other guys can't help but feel the FALCON breathing down their neck!"

"That's all fine and good," Samus interrupted, "but is there anything we can do here, or is it just your garage and that's it?"

"Pretty much just here, unless you want to head to the gift shop or something. Or have a go out on the practice track - but of course you'd need your own ride for that, since there's no way I'd let you use mine."

There was a vaguely doorbell-like noise. Falcon dashed over to a door on the opposite side of the room and opened it to a trio of guys in suits.

"Inspection." The lead guy held out an important-looking badge.

"Aw man." Falcon turned to the other Smashers. "We're gonna have to leave."

"What-a do you mean?" asked Mario.

"We can't access the garage until the inspection is done, and I don't think you want to be stuck outside for a random amount of time."

"Just as well, this place stinks. Possibly figuratively, definitely literally." Yoshi quickly stepped on the pad and vanished. The others started following; some disappointed to be leaving soon, other glad to be away from a place a guy won't shut up about.

* * *

The Smashers' re-arrival to the Smashic Universe was met with a rather different look.

"Holy moley!" Kirby exclaimed as he make the easy flight to the main platform.

The planet that had been visible from earlier was now much closer and directly beneath the platform setup. In addition, its sun was clearly visible above, and a black background of stars had replaced the mottled background of subspace.

"Let me tell you something weird," said Link. "It's actually scarier to me, hovering this high above the ground, than hovering above nothing."

Samus scanned the planet and star, which confirmed its Earth-like appearance. "Standard gravity, average nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, 70% surface ocean. Distance to sun: exactly 1AU. 365.25-day year, 24-hour day. If it has a moon, it's around the back."

"I think we're getting closer," said Fox.

It did seem like the platforms were slowly descending.

Yoshi extrapolated. "Um, I'm thinking we don't want to be here when this thing does a re-entry."

"Depends how fast it goes," said Samus. "If it's only moving at a hundred kilometres an hour or something, we'll be fine. Although that would make it take a long time to land."

"No way," said Falcon. "If we can tell we're dropping by looking at a planet, we're moving fast. Seriously, I know a thing or two about gauging speed."

"In that-a case, we should probably go to the next-a universe," suggested Mario.

There was agreement, but the idea was quickly shut down when the pad platforms suddenly disappeared into the main platform's underside.

"Oh nooooo!" Jigglypuff squished herself as flat as possible. Luigi quickly followed suit.

DK punched the ground a few times. "Open up!" Nothing happened.

"I'mma go have a look." Kirby hopped off the edge and started floating around the platform's underside, searching for a way to re-activate the pads.

"Find anything?" called Pikachu.

"Mmyygy." It was hard for Kirby to speak without opening his mouth, letting his inhaled air out, and falling. "Yy ffynk hll wyy hhf k guu yys kress wun hf vys gu-uns. Guk Yy gun nuh whys wun."

"Should've given him one of those translator pins," said Fox.

"I don't think that would work if he can't open his mouth," Pikachu said.

Kirby then started floating back upwards, although from his flailing he was trying to descend.

"So what's up?" Yoshi asked the rising puffball.

Kirby floated overtop the platform before letting his air out and landing. "There's a bunch of button-looking things on the bottom, but you don't know what's what, so…"

"Why did you come back up like that?" asked Ness.

"The wind pushed me up."

"But we're in orbit, how can the wind…" Fox trailed off as the noise of rushing air came in.

"Put yer seats in the upright position," quipped Yoshi, "'cuz nothin' else will be upright in a minute!"

Samus took a scan of the continental coast below. "Speed one thousand kilometres per hour and rising. Looks like a 50/50 whether we hit land or water."

"I blame the inspectors," Falcon shouted through the wind. "If they hadn't crashed our party we'd still be over there instead of here."

The edge of the platform started to radiate heat from the re-entry. The Smashers backed towards the middle.

"Really nice setup here," Samus sarcastically muttered. "Gather a bunch of all-stars and don't pay attention to when you send their meeting place down as a meteorite."

Luigi and Jigglypuff had gravitated to the very center of the platform. A faint energy field had appeared around them.

Mario quickly noticed. "Hey-a Luigi, what are you doing?"

Luigi looked up. The field around him vanished, now only covering Jigglypuff.

"What do you-a mean?"

Some of the other Smashers noticed the odd pinkish bubble.

"Must be another law of this universe," shouted Fox. "Cowering causes some sort of energy bubble."

Samus scanned the field around Jigglypuff, which had shrunk a bit. "It doesn't seem to be based on cowering. If anything, it's just a byproduct of mental concentration."

Kirby crunched his face into a squint. A shining bubble of pink energy instantly appeared around him. "Hey, it's just like that shield that appears when I have the power of mirrors!"

"But it shrinks as you hold it up…" DK tried as well. "It's hard to concentrate like that for very long."

"Why are you paying attention to that?" yelled Pikachu. "We're about to crash!"

The falling platform blasted through several clouds. It appeared that it was going to land in a plain between an ocean and a forest.

"Wait a minute." Fox stomped the platform a few times. "If we're falling, shouldn't we feel lighter?"

Yoshi jumped. "Yeah there's definitely something wrong here. Wouldn't the wind be a lot louder than this, too?"

The peak of a mountain rose above the platform. Luigi went back to cowering, his green energy field merging with Jigglypuff's.

"Should we try to merge all our…um…bubbles together to protect from the fall?" suggested Link.

"I don't think we need to," said Samus. "In fact…"

There was a strange humming noise. The platform started slowing down very quickly. As it neared the ground, the universal warp pads dropped out of the bottom to form a circle around the landing site, which the platform ended up hovering safely about ten meters above.

"…well that's a relief." DK had a banana.

There was a pop followed by a hissing noise. The Smashers felt a strange sensation, like an elevator had just stopped.

"That must have been the deactivation of the artificial atmosphere," said Samus. "And probably the gravity field as well."

"So that's-a why we had air and-a gravity in the middle of-a nowhere." Mario leaped off the platform and onto solid ground. The other Smashers soon followed.

Yoshi read the plaque the platform had stopped above. "Landing point of the original Super Smash Brothers, April 26th, 1999."

"1999?" Falcon snorted. "That explains the lack of visible civilization."

"Says the guy who has a 1990's garage," muttered Fox.

Link had a question. "Does that mean that if I return to my child form, this won't exist yet?"

"I'm pretty sure time travel in one universe doesn't affect others," said Samus. "So no."

Kirby started drawing a crude map of the surroundings. "So we have this plain here, and we have a forest to the…south, right? And that's the ocean the other way, and I think there's a lake on each other side…and a big mountain wayyyy out there to the…um…southeast." He rolled up the sketch. "We'll, I'm done here for now."

"Agreed. We can explore this place after we've finished doing the universe tour." Fox straightened his jacket. "Finish the known before we get to the unknown."


	11. Buffet

**Chapter 11: Buffet**

"Yay! We're here!"

The Smashers had arrived in front of Kirby's house, located in an average-looking grassland.

"Good grief." Fox looked around at the star-shaped mountains. "And I thought Mario's universe was odd-looking."

"It's like physics doesn't even care," Samus agreed.

"Physics are boring." Kirby walked over to his mailbox to see a few letters. "So…junk…weekly death threat from Dedede…junk…more junk…ooh, a present!"

"Weekly death threat?" Link's eyebrows shot up. "That's kind of…extreme."

Kirby pulled a brown package out of the mailbox. "Dedede's a dope. Every time he decides to actually come down here I kick his bum back to the castle." He started unwrapping the box. "Sometimes when I can tell he's coming I rush out the back and watch him parade around the house demanding me to come out."

Most of the Smashers had a good chuckle.

"That castle over there?" indicated Pikachu. "Is he the king's jester or something?"

"He's the king himself." Kirby took a snowglobe out of the box that he'd ordered a few weeks earlier, which contained three snow-Kirbies stacked on top of each other. "I don't know if he actually does any king stuff or even is allowed to be one, but all the Waddle Dees seem to care about is that someone feeds them."

"Speaking of feeding, these apples are pretty good." Yoshi had nabbed a few off a nearby bush. "Bit tangy, though."

Kirby suddenly leaped into the air before running into the house. A few seconds later various kitchen noises came out.

"That was…a surprise." DK scratched his head.

Jigglypuff inched into the open doorway to find Kirby wearing a chef's hat and working at lightspeed in the kitchen. "Um, what are you doing?"

"I haven't had visitors in a while. But when I do, I make them awesome food!" He juggled half a dozen eggs for a few seconds before expertly lobbing them into strategically-placed knife blades above spoons, which tipped the yolks into various bowls while scattering the shells onto the floor.

"Woah. That's some skills right there." Yoshi was sitting down to see through the kitchen window of the Yoda-sized house. "Hey Mario, you could learn a thing or twelve from this guy."

Mario rolled his eyes while Luigi chuckled.

"On the menu: chicken, potatoes, and a whole lot o' cake." Kirby was kicking ingredients into a bowl soccer-style while mashing potatoes with one hand and breading chicken with the other. "If someone wants to take those folding tables in the corner outside that'd be awesome."

"That'd be us." Pikachu hopped through the three-foot door and helped Jigglypuff move the tables outside, the rest of the Smashers unable to get inside without crashing into things.

Once set up, the tables were seen to have a crude logo of "Kirby's Mess Hall" drawn on in crayon in a very strange font.

"That's cool," said Ness. "He's got his own, uh, franchise."

A few blasts of fire occurred inside the house, followed by the sound of an egg timer ringing. Kirby then wheeled a string of stereotypical serving trolleys out of the door, complete with chrome half-domes.

Yoshi immediately picked up the scent. "Oh man, this is gonna be good."

Kirby grinned. "That's right!" He pulled a lid off with a flourish, releasing the powerful smell into the air and revealing an incredibly well-done pile of chicken.

"No way." Falcon crossed his arms. "You just started that two minutes ago. Not even I can cook stuff that fast."

"Laws of this universe, remember?" Fox poked his thumb backwards at the landscape.

"I'd like to drag some of the laws of this universe back home," said Samus. "Do you have any idea how boring the food my ship puts out is? Sometimes it's like eating cordite."

The Smashers sat down on the ground as Kirby started uncovering more of the trays. While most were chicken and potatoes as he promised, there were a few surprises, such as lettuce and chocolate sauce.

"…chocolate-a sauce?" Luigi spurted. "With chicken?"

"When you're the best chef in wherever, the only question you can ask yourself is: why not?" Kirby took a large slab of chicken and dunked it in the sauce before chomping down. "And there's usually no answer."

Pikachu scampered over to the chocolate sauce and scooped up a large helping with his tail, plopping it onto a plate of lettuce. The rest of the Smashers started digging in as well.

"This is-a five stars, right-a here!" Mario gave his approval.

"I'm sure there's a word for this." Yoshi double-dipped a chunk of chicken. "And I think that word is gastronomical."

DK scooped up some potatoes. "So, what's next for us then?"

"Well, my universe is the last stop on the tour," said Samus. "After that we'll have to hope that whoever put us together decides to show themselves."

"I think we're missing something…" Link muttered as he looked over the table.

Kirby glanced at the table for a bit before dashing back into his house. He came back out pushing what looked to be an orange suitcase-sized device resembling a gas station pump.

"Got a citrus dispenser here." The puffball produced a set of glasses and started pouring orange juice into them.

Ness took out a radio. "Do you get any cool music here?"

Kirby made a motion that seemed to be as close to a shrug as someone could get without shoulders. "Dunno, never really use the radio."

Ness turned on the radio. Immediately it began producing up-tempo music fitting to the unusual landscape, with not a trace of static.

"Ooh, I like this one!" Kirby started bobbing in time to the music.

"But you said you don't listen to it," said a confused Jigglypuff.

"I hear this song all the time, though."

Samus scanned the radio before looking up into the sky. "This might take the cake for weirdness - the atmospheric noise and cosmic microwave background radiation of this universe is, instead of producing static, producing that music."

There was a short period of dumbfounded looks from the other Smashers before they shook off the technical explanation and got back to eating.

"KIRBY!"

The Smashers turned towards the castle to find what looked like a fat penguin jogging their way.

"YOU'RE IN FOR IT NOW KIRBY, I'LL…um…" He clumsily skidded to a stop. "Who are all these guys?"

"These are my new pals," Kirby said cheerfully. "We're the…uh, what are we again? Oh yeah, the Smashers." He took another large bite. "Smashers, this is Dedede."

"There should be a "King" in there somewhere," Dedede muttered, his bubble clearly burst from seeing Kirby surrounded with eleven buddies.

"You seem disappointed." Yoshi copied Kirby's "ha-ha, you showed up at the wrong time" demeanour. "But hey, there's food! Why don't you take a bite? Or nine."

Dedede could tell he was being called fat, but having lost his edge all he could muster was an angry look. "I'll be back later, when you're…er…done eating." He shuffled away.

Fox waited until the penguin was out of earshot. "He's a buffoon alright." The others chuckled.

"Might've been fun to challenge him to a Gourmet Race." Kirby finished his juice. "That's when we scatter food around and see who can eat the most and get to the finish line first. One of you guys could have joined in or something."

"For sures on dat." Yoshi's eyebrows wiggled. "You 'n' me Kirbs, we're goin' places." He ate the last bit of food on his plate. "This is where I would fistbump you. But it's not applicable, so have a thumbs up."

The rest of the table laughed.


	12. Cavernous

**Chapter 12: Cavernous**

"I don't think anyone should follow me until I've seen where the entry pad is."

Mario gave Samus a quizzical look. "We've-a never done that before, why start now?"

"It seems that the entry pads turn up as close to where we live as possible," Samus explained. "If that pattern continues, then the pad will be aboard my gunship, which doesn't have enough room for all twelve of us, which means I'll have to land it somewhere."

"Oh. That makes-a sense."

Samus stood on the pad and vanished. The other Smashers had no choice but to wait for a bit.

"I didn't fit that pattern, though," said Link. "We appeared in the Temple of Time, which is pretty far from where I live in Kokiri Forest. Though I guess it's a bit safer right now…"

"And what about us?" asked Pikachu. "We don't really live anywhere, but why did it pick a place we've never been to?"

"And I don't live in Saturn Valley, either," said Ness. "I was just there when I got the invitation."

"Maybe it tried to pick where you live but for some reason couldn't get there." Fox shrugged. "Or something. I don't have a clue."

"Yeah, it's a bit of a crapshoot." Yoshi munched on yet another fruit. "The DK one put us a decent ways away from his place, yet mine and Mario's were right on our front lawns. And we're in the same universe."

"Still, if it's trying to get on a spaceship, there's probably nowhere it can fall back on. At least it didn't pick Falco's room or something."

Samus reappeared. "There's been a complication. I found a planet to set down on, but that's because I've been told to go there and confirm some supposed Metroid sightings. The source is unreliable but being wrong is too risky. It can be very dangerous. Do you still want to visit my universe right now?"

"Let's do it!" Falcon had somehow turned up the volume even more. "Show those Metroids who's boss!"

"I think we'll be fine," said Link. "You say you have experience with Metroids, right?"

"Too much experience."

"No. I don't-a want to go." Luigi shook his head.

"Oh c'mon you big bean," jeered Yoshi. "We took on six ReDead things and they were done like dinner faster than Wario rolls down a hill."

Most of the other Smashers nervously agreed to stick to the plan, easily outvoting the reluctant. They slowly filed onto the pad.

* * *

After arriving in Samus's gunship, each Smasher quickly disembarked onto the surface of a gloomy planet, with an overcast sky and a natural sense of desolation.

"This place is BORING!" Kirby blurted.

"It…feels very weird here," Link mumbled. "Like, hollow in some way."

"Yeah, I agree," said Ness.

Samus scanned around until she found the opening of a cave. "We need to go into the planet's cave system. The supposed sightings were reported from inside."

"Um, it's kind of dark in there." Jigglypuff was slightly cowering behind Pikachu.

"There are luminescent fungi dotting the cave interiors. And I'm sure some of you can light things up yourselves if necessary."

The Smashers cautiously walked into the cave. Sure enough, significant amounts of blue mushrooms were casting strange patterns on the walls.

"I keep expecting something to jump out of nowhere," said Ness nervously.

"This planet has no indigenous creatures," Samus said. "Also, Metroids never attack without ample warning."

"What kind of warning would that…" DK stopped talking as high-pitched noises echoed through a distant part of the cave.

"They're here, alright," Samus said grimly. "About a hundred meters down the cave. Get ready for them."

"Wait, didn't you say-a something about them being immune to things?" Mario asked.

"They are immune to everything but low temperatures. Once frozen, they can be destroyed by concussive force. My Ice Beam should make easy work of them, but stay alert if there are more than a couple."

The noises in the distance became slightly louder. Some of the distant lighting vanished, though a few small shadows could now be seen moving through the air.

"They must be eating the mushrooms or something," said Link.

A Metroid suddenly came into close-range view from above, hovering in front of the group.

"There's one!" Falcon unnecessarily pointed.

Samus aimed her Ice Beam at the Metroid a split second before her arm cannon gave off a large explosion that coated everything nearby - including the Smashers - in a thick layer of frost.

"I'm almost certain that's bad." Yoshi began to punch the ice off his face with his tongue.

The Metroid drooped a bit and slowly started trying to shake the ice off, having taken very little of the blast.

"Quick, somebody use an ice-based attack!" Samus violently broke loose of the ice and slammed her arm cannon into a wall before pressing a few buttons furiously.

Link, having been missed by most of the icy blast, drew his bow and prepared to fire. He then proceeded to stand there with a puzzled look on his face.

"You gonna do something or what?" Fox snapped.

Link's expression slowly changed from confusion to concentration and then to extreme frustration. The tip of his arrow started dripping water.

By now the Metroid had managed to shake off most of the frost and screeched.

"Time's up elf boy!" Yoshi managed to get an arm free before pulling out a Blue Watermelon and heaving it in the Metroid's general direction. There was another frosty explosion, this one finally leaving the Metroid frozen solid.

There was a period of silence before the other Metroids started hurtling down the passage.

"…yyyyyyyyyyy aaaaaaa AAAAAAAA HHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ! ! ! ! !" Link finally let go of his arrow, which flew through the air trailing water like a hose before embedding itself in the "face" of one of the Metroids. Link proceeded to exhaustedly collapse.

Samus started shooting a bunch of regular Power Beam shots at the others, trying to keep them distracted.

"Where's Kirbs?" Yoshi produced another Blue Watermelon. "I only have one of these left, he needs to have it!"

Samus switched to her Plasma Beam and evaporated both of the spherical chunks of ice. Jigglypuff dove behind DK while Kirby quickly sucked in the melon and became Ice Kirby.

"FREEZE!" Kirby gave himself a second to laugh at his own joke before he froze every one of the Metroids.

Samus fired Missiles at the floating hunks of ice until there were no more. She then melted the rest of the ice around the remaining Smashers. "That was a lot harder than it needed to be."

"That's for sure." DK shook a few remaining crystals out of his fur.

"I'd like an explanation here," Fox said sternly. "No, sorry, that's too stern. Not dealing with my team here. Still, like to know what happened."

"My Ice Beam decided it was a good time to misfire." Samus gave it another whack. "Then Link…well I don't know, what were you trying to do?"

Link slowly got up, still panting. "I was…trying…to fire…an Ice Arrow…but for…some reason…it wouldn't work…"

"Were you short on magic power or something?" asked Fox.

"No…was completely full…I always fill up…before going somewhere new."

"Magic? Well that would be your problem," Samus said. "There's no magic here. As in, this universe."

Link's face turned from exhaustion into shock. "What? How is that possible?"

"What do you mean, how is that possible? It's not something I should have to explain."

"Now wait a…" Fox thought for a bit. "So some universes have magic and some don't. I get that, I mean my universe doesn't have any. But then how did Yoshi's and Kirby's freezing stuff work?"

"The melon isn't magic," said Yoshi. "It's just super-cold on the inside or something."

"And Kirby's copying ability isn't magic either," said Samus. "As far as my scanner can tell, it's completely biological."

Ness tried to do a few PK tricks. Nothing happened. "I can't use my psychic powers here either."

"Might explain why you felt the place to be empty in a way," thought Samus.

"So how many of our universes have-a magic and which ones don't?" Mario started counting on his fingers. "We do, Kirby does, Ness does, Pikachu might, Link does - oh stand up, it's not that-a surprising."

Link continued to remain on the ground. Unlike the other Smashers, he was completely used to magic as a constant of everyday life, and so didn't know how to act having been told that it's only a constant of some universes.

"…while Samus doesn't, Fox doesn't, and Falcon doesn't. Right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Oh, and the Smashic Universe does," Fox remembered. "So that's six that do and three that don't."

"There must be some bit of magic here," said Yoshi. "Link did manage to at least get his arrow pretty wet."

"We need to find whoever got us together and ask him about that kind of stuff," said DK.

"Yeah, we're done here." Samus started towards the cave's entrance. The others followed.

"So that's the tour done?" asked Pikachu. "So what now?"

Mario shrugged. "We-a wait for the organizer to tell us what to do?"

"Maybe we should take a look around the plain we landed in," suggested Yoshi.

"At least it's-a peaceful there," said Luigi.

Kirby quickly got out his map and scrawled "Peaceful Plain" on it. "That's a good name!"


	13. Dozen

**Chapter 13: Dozen**

"Aw, it got cloudy." Kirby frowned a bit.

An overcast sky could be seen coming in from past the lake to the west, some of its outer clouds having already reached the sun.

Yoshi sniffed a bit. "I can smell the rain coming."

Mario looked around. "So we-a wait for new information?"

Link shrugged. "I guess."

The Smashers stood around for a few minutes as the sky got progressively darker. There were a few rumblings of thunder.

"I hate getting rained on," mumbled Fox.

A few bolts of what appeared to be pink lightning flashed into existence before seemingly spewing bits of grape-coloured particles into the distant landscape.

"Oh great," Samus muttered. "Those Polygon things again."

The vertexial strings vanished as they came, but it was clear they had already dumped hundreds of Polygons into the distance.

DK cracked his knuckles. "Looks like we got a fight coming."

The Polygons could be seen approaching at top speed. As expected, there appeared to be one type for each Smasher.

"Maybe…we should, um, run away?" stammered Jigglypuff.

"'Friendly combat is a primary component of the program.'" Link drew his bow. "That's what the letter said. And I think this is some of it."

"Well bring it on then," Falcon remarked. "We'll give 'em what's comin' to 'em."

"A little of the sumthin-sumthin what-for, eh?" Yoshi took out his tongue and whirled it around a bit.

Once the first group of Polygons got into firing range, Fox, Link, and Samus immediately started shooting them. Each shot caused its target to spontaneously explode into odd purple smoke.

"Looks like their increased numbers have weakened their individual structural integrity," Samus read off her scanner.

"Blah blah blah, ATTACK!" Pikachu leaped at the nearest Polygon with a powerful Skull Bash. He travelled right through the dispatched target and rammed a second, which lived long enough to be dispatched with a Thunder Shock.

Only being attacked one at a time, the wave of Polygons closed in, forcing most of the Smashers into close-range combat. Yoshi and Kirby were repeatedly spitting enemies at other enemies, DK's massive blows were destroying multiple foes at once, and Falcon was fighting with his unique style.

"We can't hold them off like this." Fox kicked something in the midsection. "We still got a couple hundred to go. We need area-of-effect attacks."

DK immediately slammed his fists into the ground, flinging about thirty of the Polygons out of immediate range at the cost of knocking most the of the Smashers on their butts.

"Yeah, like that. What else do we got?"

Link pulled out his bag of bombs and started hurling explosives into the crowd, taking out multiple targets at once. Kirby snatched and swallowed one of them so he could double the output. Samus started using her Plasma Beam to cut through the crowd. The Smashers began to get a little more breathing room.

"These guys aren't really much of a challenge." Yoshi walloped an enemy in the head with his tongue. "Have any of us gotten hit yet?"

Luigi took the opportunity to trip while backing away from one of the larger Polygons. He naturally cowered a bit, bringing up the odd energy bubble from before. The Polygon promptly delivered a haymaker into the bubble, which shrunk a fair bit yet seemed to absorb the impact, though it did leave Luigi sliding across the Smashers' clearing. Mario dispatched the assailant with a fireball to the stomach.

"See, that's what I thought." Kirby tossed a few more bombs. "That round thing blocks stuff that wants to hurt you."

"Doesn't matter, you can't beat a good offense!" Falcon delivered a flying elbow smash that caused a minor domino effect.

The assault continued, though it was clear the Smashers were having a pretty easy time of it. Only a handful of evasive maneuvers were needed to avoid injury, and the Smashers' wide variety of attacks was dispatching the Polygons without much effort. After a solid five minutes of countering the rush, eventually all of the enemies were dispatched.

"Oy." Pikachu sat down with a pant. "Is it nap time now?"

It finally started to rain a bit.

"Ug." Fox glanced around to find no nearby trees to hide under. He slumped disappointingly.

"There, there. Have a brolly." Yoshi produced an eggshell-patterned umbrella and handed it to the unhappy pilot as the rain intensified.

For a minute or two, the Smashers just stood around in the rain, taking a break from the nonstop action that had just occurred.

Kirby was the first to break the silence. "I'm hungry."

"Word." Yoshi brought out a bunch of bananas. "You K with this?" He tossed one to Kirby and kept the other two for himself - though he did hand one over to DK after a short uncomfortable glare.

"So I guess we're back to 'what now?'", said Link.

"Has anything shown up on-a that platform?" asked Mario, pointing to the large platform floating overhead.

Kirby and Jigglypuff floated up onto the platform, the only Smashers able to reach it easily.

"I don't see anything," said Jigglypuff.

"Yeah, there's…wait a bit." Kirby walked to the center of the platform and picked up a small bronze coin, featuring the crossed-circle symbol in the middle surrounded by concentric circles. "It's a penny!"

Some of the Smashers became confused, the word "penny" not registering as "small bit of money".

Kirby jumped down and showed off the coin. "It's got that funny symbol in the middle so it's not one of ours."

"There wasn't any other money around?" asked Ness.

"We could flip it to decide what to do," suggested Fox.

Kirby turned the coin over. "Same on both sides." He tossed the coin into the air, which hung up for slightly longer than expected before being caught and fumbled. "Aw!"

"Something was funny about that thing's trajectory." Samus picked it out of the newly-formed mud and threw it upwards. The coin soared into the air and took a good fifteen seconds to land back on the ground.

"Helium cash, that's a new one." Yoshi took the coin and flipped it a few times. Indeed, it certainly acted as if it were lighter than air, achieving three seconds of hang time for each flip.

Mario had an idea. "Let's-a see how high it can-a go."

Yoshi tossed the coin over to DK, who proceeded to wind up and launch the money into the troposphere, accompanied by a blazing copper trail. After a short time the coin exploded like a massive multicoloured firework, blasting a huge hole in the clouds.

"That was impressive!" Falcon shouted slightly louder than usual.

The detonation had some more effects. From the ground near the plaque under the large platform, a silver cylindrical canister erupted out of the ground and embedded itself into the knot of a tree a good distance away.

Link retrieved the canister with his Longshot; it was about half a meter long and quite light. The crossed-circle symbol was emblazoned on the rounder, "front" end.

"Open it! Open it!" Pikachu gave the impression it was a sort of birthday present.

Link started tweaking various bits of the cylinder, trying to find an entry point without simply cutting it open. Eventually he managed to unscrew the rounder end and release thirteen envelopes.

"We can't open these in the rain!" Fox quickly stuffed the papers back in. "They'll get ruined."

DK gave a confused look. "I thought it stopped raining."

Fox cautiously put down the umbrella and didn't get wet. "Hey yeah, you're right. But why do I still hear rain then?"

The Smashers looked up. The hole in the clouds caused by the explosion of the coin was situated directly overhead - it was still raining a distance away, but they were in a safe spot.

There was a round of shrugging while each Smasher took the letter addressed to them. They all read the same:

_Congratulations!_

_After successful completion of a series of tests, you and your eleven new friends are now officially part of the Super Smash Bros. Program! Once you have finished with the rest of this letter you may feel free to return to your home universes and/or mingle with others'._

_Two orders of business remain:_

_1. As you know, currently the only physical presence of the program is a single platform. For the same reasons the program's supervisor cannot meet with you directly, plans to construct a headquarters building here have stalled. Should you wish to construct a headquarters building here yourselves, please refer to the included instructions._

_2. It is more than likely that you have questions about something. To make up for not providing any direct means of communication with us, this letter has been set up with an entanglement connection to our knowledge base. Please write any one question you have in the blank space below and it will be automatically answered to the best of this paper's ability._

_Thank you for your patience._

Kirby was the first to have a question. "What's an ant-angle-mint connection?"

Samus checked her data files. "It probably means that the information will be sent and received with zero delay, not counting the time needed to compute the answer."

Link turned the cylinder over and shook it a few times, finally causing a pencil to fall out. "So we just write a question on the letter and it answers it for us?"

"Seems that way." Fox thought for a bit. "We should make sure we don't accidentally ask the same question twice. That'd be a waste."

"Can we ask questions like "What's the Caramilk secret?"" Yoshi grinned. "Nah just kidding. Too silly. Probably supposed to ask serious big-picture questions."

"I have-a the first question." Mario took the pencil and wrote as he spoke. "How much time are we supposed to commit to being a Smasher?"

The others murmured in agreement of the question's usefulness. After about twenty seconds, the answer appeared on the page in the same typeface as the letter.

_There are no strict commitments required of any of you. You may venture across each others' universes as you please, you may spend all your time in this universe, or you may remain in your home universe as long as you want. The only true requirement is participation in occasional sparring matches with each other, which will be broadcast across the multiverse to fans._

"So what's where the "friendly combat" thing comes in," said Falcon.

"Would it really be a good idea to spend all our time here though?" asked DK. "I know some of you have other things to do."

"That's a good one." Link took the pencil and started writing. "Will our time spent in this universe happen in other universes?"

Kirby looked at the Hylian script. "Those are cool scribbles."

"What, you can't read…" Link glanced at the other letters, realizing that each one was written in the receiver's native language. "Hm, looks like my alphabet is the minority."

The response appeared on the page.

_It is impossible to know how time will be synchronized across universes. The most likely outcome is that time spent in one universe will be an equivalent time in other universes, but there is a wide variety of possibilities._

"That goes in line with their recruitment letter," said Samus. "We do appear to move in the same timespace when we travel across universes, since we seem to leave one at the same rate we enter another, but maybe they're talking on a larger scale. Or maybe the creation of this universe has formed a stronger anchor."

"Now what about-a that "sparring matches" bit," Mario thought. "We'll want-a building or something to do-a that in, right?"

"The headquarters building they talk about, maybe?" Fox scratched his head. "Could ask about that, I don't think we have ten more "deep" questions."

There was agreement. Ness wrote on his letter. "Where will the sparring matches happen?"

_The headquarters building to be constructed will include an arena for bouts. It will contain technology to replicate various battlefields based on your home universes._

"Oh yeah, speaking of home universes…" Yoshi started writing. "Some of us are from the same universe as others. Why did more than one "warp pad" appear in those places?" He paused. "Hm, I hope they know what I mean by "warp pad"." Before he could write down what he meant, the answer came back.

_The universe you are referring to, the Mushroom Universe, is linked to the Jungle Universe and the Eggic Universe. While the three were originally distinct in the past, they have over time fused together to varying degrees, similar in principle to continental drift. As it was decided to respect this difference for the Jungle Universe, it was also decided to do so for the Eggic Universe - though the decision was hardly unanimous._

Yoshi chuckled. "They really called it the "Eggic Universe"? Wow. I guess if you're naming them after the symbols on the pads, that makes sense, but…"

"And "Jungle Universe"?" DK chimed in. "It's not all jungle, even though it looks like it on the surface."

"Hey, how'd they pick those symbols, anyway?" Pikachu began scratching away with the pencil. "How'd you pick the place symbols?"

_Each universal symbol was chosen to represent a fundamental, irreplicable facet of the universe, in combination with the symbol chosen by each of you for replying to your invitations._

The response was met by more questions. "We didn't pick a symbol, did we?" Fox tried to remember how he replied to the invitation. "Well, the envelope I used had our logo on it, but…"

"I used a star envelope!" blurted Kirby. "And that's what the picture is!"

"And I used a "DK" sticker to seal the envelope," DK said. "Well, if I'd have known they were picking symbols based on that, I'd have used some bananas."

There was a short period of silence as the others realized how they inadvertently picked their universal symbols. The Pokémon, however, hadn't picked their symbol in this way (their letters having arrived in a Pokéball), and so instead of thinking about it they were going over the question Jigglypuff was writing.

"Why are each of us here?" The answer took almost a minute to come back.

_Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi: For their unrelenting work in keeping the Mushroom Kingdom safe from invading forces._

_ Donkey Kong: For dealing with a series of reptile invasions with determination and unflinching resolve._

_ Link: For his efforts at protecting and rescuing the kingdom of Hyrule in the face of debilitating odds._

_ Samus: For her efforts at keeping the Galactic Federation safe from starborne menaces._

_ Kirby: For his constant protection of Dream Land from various evil forces._

_ Fox: For admirable courage and skill at guarding Corneria from attackers._

_ Pikachu and Jigglypuff: For demonstration of unusual skills under pressure and surviving situations no other Pokémon could._

_ Captain Falcon: For being one of the prime faces of the F-Zero enterprise and having the skill to back it up._

_ Ness: For showing incredible courage in unusual situations and repelling alien forces._

"Still dunno why they can't pick whether I'm with the bros or not," said Yoshi.

Pikachu was somewhat disheartened. "I kinda thought they couldn't come up with a good reason for us to be here."

"Aw cheer up!" Kirby leaped right in front of the Pokémon's face and bounced around with a huge smile. "This is the good guys club, you're just as good as everyone else they picked, quit complaining!"

"So that's half our possible questions answered." DK noted.

Fox wrote down the next one. "Who is the program's supervisor?"

_This database is not permitted to share that information. That said, the supervisor is not a being any of you know, and who is a great power in this and many other universes._

"That's kind of a dumb answer," pouted Fox. "It's like they don't want us to know who the boss is."

"Maybe they're scared of being known or something," Link shrugged. "I know a guy called Sheik who covers up pretty much everything but his eyes. He teaches me warp songs but speaks in riddles and vanishes the instant his work is done."

"Ooh ooh!" Kirby began scribbling; his writing was an utter mess yet somehow remained readable. "Does this universe have good physics or boring physics?"

_The Smashic Universe is a supermetaphysical hyperbraid of all your home universes. You will be able to jump as high as in the Mushroom Universe, cast magic as strong as in the Triforcic Universe, and cook as fast as in the Dreamstar Universe. It also has additional physics structures: examples include enhanced atmospheric propulsion abilities, damage dispersal fields powered by mental focus, and expendable matter replication for use as ammunition._

Kirby began reading the response but tripped over words like a square-wheeled car, producing utterances like "hipper-bride", "deespersul", and "ekspendubble". Most Smashers (including Kirby) laughed. Samus corrected him but couldn't elaborate on what the technobabble meant except for one part.

"I think it means we have infinite ammo here."

Link started counting the bombs in his bag only to realize there was the same number as he left the Temple of Time with, despite using quite a few during the previous battle. "I think you're right."

"Damage dispersal fields…" Fox thought for a bit. "Maybe that's referring to those energy shields we can produce. Think it's worth asking for more about them?"

There was agreement. Luigi put the question on his letter. "How do our energy shields work?"

_Your personal damage dispersal fields are produced as a result of defensively-minded concentration. While they repel any attack, their size is proportional to the strength of your mental focus; both damage and time wear down your concentration until it shrinks to nothing and you are rendered completely unable to focus. In addition, certain types of attacks have a greater effect on the field's strength, and it can only protect against damaging force._

"Rendered unable to focus?" Fox wondered. "What does that mean?"

"I'll find out!" Kirby assumed his defensive posture as the pink bubble formed around him.

"You sure that's a good idea?"

"Hey, better to find out now than when we're actually under attack," said Link.

Kirby's shield slowly shrunk; while it was weakening he experimented a bit with shifting it around. Eventually it shrunk to smaller than his body - though it was somehow still visible - before letting off an unusual shattering noise and vanishing, the energy release causing Kirby to get bounced upwards.

"Oof!" Yoshi dove under Kirby's landing point and caught him with his nose. "You 'k there Kirbs?"

Instead of answering, Kirby just moaned for a bit.

"Hey! Oi! Earth to Kirby!" Yoshi tried snapping his fingers and poking Kirby in the belly, the puffball remained immune to stimuli. "Yeah he's unable to focus alright."

After a few seconds Kirby recovered. "Yeef. That was like a hammer to the head. Without the owie." He put up the shield again; it seemed as secure as ever, if not fully recharged. "It fixes itself, that's good."

Samus had the next question. "Why does it seem like all our universes have similarities? Shouldn't different universes be completely different?"

"What does-a that mean?" asked Mario.

"I doubt it's a coincidence that pretty much every home planet in our universes has the same sun, the same gravity, the same atmosphere, the same basic laws, and so on. You'd think that different universes would be a bit…more different."

"Maybe they only picked the universes that are similar?" suggested Yoshi. "I mean, if you have infinite universes, then it's impossible to not find a group that are similar."

It took a full thirty seconds for the response to arrive.

_You appear to have stumbled upon the concept of quintessence - the phenomenon believed to synchronize the structure of reality across universes. Very little is known about this._

"That's disappointing, but I guess we can't be surprised," Fox said. "I mean, this is their first try getting people from across universes, right? They can't know everything."

"So we have two questions left." DK thought for a bit. "Maybe we could ask what this place is named? What did you call it, Kirby?"

Kirby got out the map. "The Paceful Plain! No wait, Peaceful. Yeah, Peaceful Plain."

"If those guys already had a name lined up though, we'd want to use that instead," said Yoshi.

DK penciled the question. "Does this place have a name?"

_Your current location is unnamed and unexplored. You are free to name terrain and landmarks as you see fit, though you are recommended to avoid naming things after yourselves._

"Alright, so Peace-a-ful Plain it is then," Mario said. "One-a last question."

Falcon held the pencil at the ready. "I think we should try to find out what's going to happen with this group in the future. We have this stadium built, we duke it out a few times, then what?"

The Smashers agreed. The question was written. "What's going to happen to our group later on?"

_There is no way to tell how popular this venture will be. One thing is certain, however - we do not plan to end this program in the foreseeable future._


	14. Frontier

**Chapter 14: Frontier**

Mario set the brass stake into the ground and got out a hammer. "Is-a everybody ready?"

There were various nods, thumbs-ups, and "yep"s from the other Smashers. Mario nodded in assent and drove the stake into the ground.

A huge white mass erupted from one corner of the stake, spreading across the ground to cover an area at least forty meters wide by forty meters long.

Yoshi bent down to feel the tarp-like object. "It's a bit thicker than we expected, but it feels like paper alright."

"Okie-dokie then." Mario leapt up onto the control platform with most of the other Smashers as it hovered into the air.

After a few days resting in their home universes, the Smashers were back in the Peaceful Plain ready to design a headquarters building as the letter had suggested. The included instructions laid out what to do: collect the equipment hidden behind the landing plaque and use it to design the building. Once the design is completed, the building will be constructed - though it was not explained how the construction would proceed.

The equipment and procedure were somewhat roundabout. The Smashers were to use the provided large sheet of paper in order to draw the blueprints for the building, using the four provided large pencil-like objects (each about as tall as Mario). A hovering platform was also provided, large enough to hold all the Smashers, so that the designs could be observed from above; the platform contained controls to move around and remotely change the colour of the pencils (something the Smashers couldn't determine whether it was magic or technology). Fox concluded that it was more a team-building exercise than a serious procedure given its inherent wackiness.

The Smashers chosen to be the pencil-holders were Kirby, Jigglypuff, Pikachu, and Yoshi: as the Smashers were weary of damaging the giant sheet of paper, the drawers were chosen for their superior flying and light-stepping abilities. The remaining Smashers took to the control platform and hovered over the center of the site.

Mario took to the megaphone on the platform. "Okie-dokie, let's start with-a the outside walls."

The four pencil-holders moved over the white mass and started spreading themselves out, representing the four corners of the building.

"Seems a bit big!" Kirby called out to the others.

"No offense but you're not one to talk." Samus started using her scanner to measure the dimensions of the rectangle.

Kirby grinned. "Oh yeah, I'm the little guy! Whoopsie!"

"It's about twenty-five meters long by nineteen meters wide," Samus reported.

Fox directed the platform low to the ground, trying to visualize the size of the building. "Could be a bit bigger depending what we want in it. This is supposed to be a "headquarters", right?"

"I'm thinking it should be a place where we can just hang out together," Falcon said. "Some game tables, a big TV, stuff like that."

"What about bedrooms?" Link asked. "We wouldn't live here all the time but having the option would be nice."

"Like a hotel on the highway between universes," Fox agreed.

"A whole bedroom for each of us?" interjected Pikachu. "That would be awesome!"

"We'll need to make it big enough for twelve-a bedrooms then," Mario concluded.

"Just make it bigger anyway. We can always fill up the extra room with closets or something." Yoshi fluttered outwards; the other three followed.

"The size is now thirty-two by twenty-seven."

"Yeah this seems much better." Fox looked around at the new corner placements. "Okay, now draw us some walls."

The drawers put their pencils on the paper and started moving towards each others' starting points - Pikachu treaded carefully along the sheet, while the other three hovered along.

After a short while, though, Yoshi set down and looked back at his work. "Umkay. You'd have to have a pretty liberal definition to call that a straight line." The other Smashers chuckled. He began inching back, passing the eraser end over the mess, which caused the marks to vanish instantly. "Clearly I should either walk or get someone else down here."

"You should be okay walking," said Pikachu, who had sped up a bit and had already reached the end of his side. "It doesn't feel like it'll rip."

The dino shuffled a bit forwards cautiously before starting a ginger walk, producing a reasonably straight line.

"Now we should try to fit twelve bedrooms into this space." Samus reached over to the pencil colour controls, causing a funny glow that changed the lead of the four pencils to a vibrant blue. "We'll use a different colour for each floor."

The Smashers on the observation platform started discussing methods of organizing twelve bedrooms in a rectangular space. The pencil-holders quickly grew bored and started playing tic-tac-toe.

After about ten minutes, Fox spoke up. "Okay you guys we think we've figured it out."

Kirby wiped out the boards. "Was it math?"

"Umm…sure. Move to the corners."

The pencil-holders took their places. "Don't forget the stairs," offered Pikachu.

"Then put-a some stairs in the corner there," pointed Mario. Yoshi drew in a series of lines and labelled it "STAIRS".

"Okay then." Fox visualized the pattern and pointed in various directions as he explained it. "We'll have four rooms along both the east and west sides and four rooms as a square in the middle. The halls between them look kind of like a…er…a square with two sides moved in. Get it?"

There was a bit of head-scratching.

"Square in the middle." Kirby picked out an easy-to-understand part and started blocking out a box in the center of the sheet.

"And…four along the sides?" Pikachu traced a line down the eastern side. "About this long?"

The observing Smashers continued to coach the drawers. It didn't take long for the twelve rooms to be blocked out.

"Let's get back to the first floor." Samus turned the pencils green. "Put a foyer on the south side."

Kirby complied, drawing out a medium-sized box at the new front of the building. He then scribbled "front doors here" underneath.

"We need-a some washrooms," said Luigi.

"How about in the middle there?" suggested Fox. "Two should be enough, since I don't think all twelve of us will be here all the time."

The washrooms were drawn in, followed by a kitchen and a dining table along the north side. The pencil-users hopped onto the observation platform to get a wide look.

"This'll be cool," said Pikachu.

"I don't think we're missing anything," added Yoshi.

"You think we're done?" asked Link.

"Yep." The other Smashers shrugged.

"Well, let's-a hit the button and see what-a happens." Mario pressed the button on the console labelled "Finished".

There was silence for a few moments. Suddenly, the foundation paper began making a strange noise, something between a ripping noise and a low humming. Walls of paper leaped out of the lines drawn on the sheet; in just a few seconds a building made of paper had been erected. The process didn't stop there - increasingly unusual noises heralded holes being torn in the walls to produce circular windows, the exterior walls turning into yellow-beige panels of varying textures, and a flash of spiral light that placed a domed roof on the whole thing. The finale was an energy firework being launched out of the ground near the front, detonating in a massive explosion of colours and leaving a flagpole behind.

Pikachu was the first to recover from the stunning spectacle. "That was awesome!" He gave a jittery Ness a high-five.

"Very impressive!" Falcon agreed.

"At bit too over-the-top," DK said, blinking a few times.

The Smashers hovered down and got off the platform to see the new construction at ground level. Each of the yellowish, rectangular panels that made up its exterior seemed to be made of a different substance: various kinds of wood, rock, concrete, brick, metal, plastic, resin, vinyl, rubber, stained glass, and even artificial turf. The windows had white trim and were shaped like the Smashic Universe's symbol. The front doors were a deep mahogany and large enough to comfortably fit even Bowser's large frame, yet somehow seemed easily accessible to the smallest Smashers. The domed roof looked to be made of glass, and the flag topping the silver flagpole was emblazoned with the Smashic symbol against a background mosaic of over a dozen million colours.

Impressed by the exterior, the Smashers continued inside. The foyer was floored with maple hardwood and topped by a rather impressive twelve-bulb chandelier. Both washrooms utilized white tiled walls and random steel-blue squares on the floor. The two rec rooms forming the brunt of the sides of the building were filled with various chairs, sofas, tables, rugs, and a 41-inch TV plugged into a cabinet filled with the grade-A titles of Nintendo's almost two-decade library. The rear-wall dining room had a table long enough for all twelve Smashers and a few extras with an abstract portrait of the Smashers on the wall. The kitchen in the rear-center had a pair of fridges, a six-burner oven, and enough counterspace for Kirby to whip up a holiday feast for everyone in half an hour. Each of the twelve bedrooms upstairs was furnished with an identical pale-blue motif, with a simple horizontal gradient for wallpaper and a bed that could have its size adjusted by dragging its corners around. The third floor was essentially on the roof under the glass dome, containing a dozen chairs and a soft green carpet.

While some Smashers marvelled at the building they had designed, others ventured into the basement. Mostly but not completely finished, it contained the expected trimmings such as a furnace, hot water heater, breaker panel, and cold cellar, with most of the space containing empty shelves for storage. But it was the sub-basement that commanded the most attention. Like a classy evil genius's lair, it was mostly lit by the flashing lights and nixie tubes of dozens of wood-paneled, brass-detailed computer mainframes. A glass sphere in the center of the room glowed green from a coiled neon tube inside, with similar lamps of different colours alongside. What appeared to be the central nexus was topped by a pair of large seven-segment two-digit displays, neither active, and a few dozen smaller displays that appeared to be listing data about each of the Smashers' universes. Wires of various thicknesses were strewn across the floor, all secured with duct tape, and the only visible control panel had a hundred buttons each labelled with an abstract symbol.

Once the Smashers all ended up in the sub-basement, the speculation began.

"So what's with the secret base, eh?" Yoshi took a sniff of a cube a meter in size that was attached to the primary nexus with a hose. "Is this the stuff that controls the warp pads or something?"

"Looks like it." Fox pointed at the main display. "Those are the universal symbols over each group of numbers here."

Samus took a scan of the computers. "It's hard to tell exactly what they're doing, but it seems they're monitoring the state of the universes. For example, these numbers seem to be a measurement of how much mass is in each universe, and those big displays at the top display error codes."

Link took a large book out of a drawer. "This might help."

Falcon took the book and thumbed through it. "Wow! Now THAT is a lot of technobabble."

"Well, we-a can probably deal with-a that later," Mario said. "Let's-a have Kirby make us some lunch."

Kirby grinned and bolted up the pair of stairs, the others following. Within a minute he had served up a dozen jam sandwiches.


End file.
